Bleach: The Devils Cry
by TheChroniclerX
Summary: Armageddon, Ragnarok, the Final Battle, it goes by many names... The Shinigami say it ended 2000 years ago. The fools. Now once again, only a Dark Knight can save the world of man, only he and an orange haired would be Shinigami. This is their story. R
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: All characters, plots, and references to the Anime/Manga Bleach, and the Video Game Devil May Cry are not owned by me

_**Bleach:**_

_**The Devils Cry**_

In the Beginning there was God... and there was darkness...

And in the darkness dwelt the demons... creatures and beings of pure emotion... twisting and writhing in an eternal pattern wrought by the emptiness of the universe.

And then God said "_**Let there be Light..."**_

And behold there was light... in an instant the universe was spilt in two... darkness and light... and God looked upon the light and saw that it was good, bestowing that domain upon his favored creations, which he made in his own image... and leaving the demons as they were undisturbed in the dark...

Then came the fall of man... and the rise of the seven deadly sins... Sloth... Gluttony... Envy... Lust... Greed... Wrath... and Pride...

And as the heavens tore themselves asunder in the throes of civil war the demons in the dark feasted on the sins of man, becoming twisted in their minds and purposes, irreversibly one with the darkness of their domain. Thus the demons of legend were born, gorged as they were on the darkness that lurks in the depths of mans mind they wreathed their world in corrupting fires, corroding it into a place of nightmares and endless pain. Such was the place which Lucifer and those that he had dragged down with him were banished too. So foul was the darkness that eventually any noble ambitions that may of once driven the fallen was washed away in waves of deprivation and hate

Time passed, and the worlds remained divided, the Light blissfully ignorant of the dark, and the dark seething in decadence but too divided in leadership to coordinate against the light. In this golden age following the Great Flood, the first incarnation of Seireitei was built by the founding noble souls, and the first Shinigami were born, guiding lost souls to Purgatory, or Soul Society as it would come to be called, and defending against the growing threat of Hueco Mundo, and the dark spirits that were inexplicably drawn there, called Hollows. It was also during this era, that ushered in the rise of the Quincy, and they're own war against the Hollows.

Relative peace was at hand, and for a century or so, it was good.

The darkness did not bide it's time idly however, and it was not destined to be so easily forgotten...

Lacking any figure head save for the ever elusive Lucifer, whose schemes and plots where his and his alone...the Demons and Demon Lords fought and fought amongst themselves for the lowest of thrones upon the bottom of their dark world.

But time changes all things... and fate is far too cruel for such things to stand forever...

And as a Messiah was ushered into the world of mortals, so too was his opposite born in the world of demons. Barely 2 years after the death and rebirth of his opposite, the anti Messiah, Mundas as his subject's called him, claimed the throne that had been vacant sense the dawn of creation, almost as if it were waiting for him. His first act as King was to set the tone for the rest of his dynasty.

"Light and Dark were once united, so why not rule them as one...?"

With a single sentence Mundus had committed the whole of demon kind to the enslavement of mankind. Ironically, it was humanity that undid the only line of defense they ever had, the barrier between the two words. Man inherently fears the darkness, and in their fear they built they paved they way for their dark masters to claim their world...

The tower of fear... the Temen-ni-gru...

As the minions of darkness cried out in terror to their Lords, Seireitei was already mobilizing the Gotei thirteen against the threat of the demons.

Initially the Shinigami held their own against the demonic invaders, holding fast a Kido barrier formed at the base of Temen-ni-gru, but it was a delaying action at best, in a war of attrition the numberless hordes of the demons could not be defeated, and as more and more of their dark spawn crossed the barrier between the worlds deteriorated uncontrollably until the whole of the world was covered in the foul beasts.

Eventually Soul Society itself came under siege, an innumerable horde of demons swarmed the Rukongai, and slaughtered their way to the very foot steps of the Seireitei. Here they were halted by the 13th squad and Captain Yamamoto who, in swift order, organized several upper classmen of the Shinigami Academy, and what few members of the Kido corps he could scrounge up, into a cohesive and deadly defensive line, holding for seven days and seven nights until the siege was finally lifted by the timely arrival of the 11th squad.

By then Captain Yamamoto, and a few haggard members of the 13th squad were the only ones left, with the Captain himself covered in scars that he would bare for the rest of his life.

Stretched thin across the whole of the world, augmented by the Quincy and the few pockets of humanity that were able to offer any form of resistance, the Shinigami were completely unprepared when hallows began to emerge in the living world in numbers that had never been seen before, or would ever be seen again. In vain they fought to the last breath, to hold every square inch of blood stained soil that they could, but inevitably they were forced from the world of the living, holed up in Seireitei as the rest of the world went to hell...

It was as mankind prepared to meet its end... in the darkest hour...when not even the might of death could hold sway over the demons...that _**He **_came...

The legends do not say who he was before the war...they do not say why it was he turned on his kind... and they do not say where he came from...

All they say is he fought for us...

At the deciding days of mankind's fate, a Demon Knight rose up against his own kind, armed with nothing but his own sword, and a noble soul, he challenged the demon Generals of Mundas to single combat, one by one defeating them and sealing them away. At the moment of their enemies greatest weakness, an elite group of Shinigami, lead by the newly promoted Captain Commander Yamamoto, launched one final, desperate assault on the Temen-ni-gru. Side by side the demon knight fought besides the Shinigami, to the very door steps of hell itself...

But the power of the demons... could not so easily be undone...

It was fate that caused the demon knight to reach the top of the tower first... and it was fate that caused Mundas to step through the nether gates at that exact moment...

No records exist of the exchange between the demon and the devil, but the intent was clear... it was between the two of them that the fate of both worlds would be decided...

Blows as hard as thunder and as innumerable as rain passed between the two,shaking the very foundations of the tower. So awesome was the spectacle before them that both sides relented in their battle, pausing to bare witness to the salvation of mankind... or its damnation...

Time stopped as the final blow was exchanged, seemingly caught in awe at the forces being presented before it, but inevitably fate made itself known. The demon stood triumphant above his former master's broken body, and without the powers of their dark prince, the demons faded back into the shadow world they had crawled out from. As the world itself seemed to heave a sigh of relief...

However, one final thing was needed to ensure long standing victory over the demon, a ritual to seal the evil entities off forever.

Once more the demon bravely stepped forth as the catalyst for this ritual, and alongside him stepped a young Shinigami, born of the Kuchiki family prepared to make the sacrifice needed to end it once and for all. In the end the demon, who had sacrificed so much for the sake of our world, became as close to a man as one such as he could ever be, sealing the majority of his demonic powers off in the demon world. Dwelling in the land of the living, he stood ever watchful for dangers from the land he had once called home.

Eventually this man became nothing more then a myth... and this myth, became a legend... the Legendary Dark Knight... Sparada...

But even as the Shinigami began to pick up the pieces, taking steps to ensure there never was a second demon war, one man, who bore the weight of Captain Commander of the Gotei 13, knew that it wasn't over... not yet...

In fact, it had yet to even begin...

_2000 years later...  
_

* * *

**A/N:** Holy crap...I can't believe I actually got around to typing that up...

Amazing what you can do with a little determination, and a lot of free time eh...

At any rate if you like it so far, or if you didn't like it, drop a review off...

This is my first Fan Fic, and if you want it to continue one word...reviews...

They are my life blood, and without them...the heart of this story will stop beating and die...

Besides that feel encouraged to point out any spelling mistakes I've made...as I tend to have a lot lying around... Damn how should I wrap this up...

Oh well... Oh before I forget... I'd like to thank the person who wrote the first Devil May Cry and Bleach crossover... they sort of inspired me on this one... Also A big thank you to anyone that took the time out of their day to actually read this... Heres to you guys...


	2. Chapter 1: One of those Days

**A/N: **Seeing as I lacked sufficient space in the summary to fully elaborate on my focus in this story, I figure now is a good a time as any to reiterate. Most crossovers I've read, and I am speaking generally here so try not to take offense, usually fall into two categories.

The first kind is the one that usually doesn't pan out to well, and often it tends to err on the side of crap. That being the one where, some magical portal opens up for little to no apparent reason, and sucks the main character(s) of one universe into that of another universe, once there the the main characters form both sides meet up, once again with little explanation, and instantly become the best of friends, with little thought given as to how the separate characters might actually react to each other.

The second kind, being the one which I'm trying to emulate here, is usually the kind that usually works out better then the other, and again I am speaking generally here. This kind often goes straight to the source of their crossovers, and merges the universes themselves into a single entity. These kind tend to be the more well thought out of the two, with actually reason behind plot advancement and character interaction.

The idea for this story has been playing around in my head for awhile now, and I finally feel that I am up to the monstrous task of actually writing the thing. At this point, I have pretty general idea of where this story will go, and how it will end, but nothing is really final until its on paper.

That being said, here it is, the first "official" chapter, of Bleach: The Devil's Cry... title pending...

* * *

Thanks to the one of you who actually reviewed... all one of you... It inspired me enough to get around to typing the second chapter only a day or so later. Which I hope all of you reading this will appreciate as a feat that will not repeat itself in the future.

Special Thanks to SplitToInfinity for her review, proving once and for all that a little attention goes a long way.

Also thanks to the makers and producers of Devil May Cry and Bleach, because without them,my story would be substantially less interesting then it already is...

Moving on...

* * *

**_Bleach_**

**_The Devils Cry_**

**_Chapter 1: One of those Days_**

The first light of a new day barely peaked its way through the slits of the window shades, and already he knew it was going to be one of those days. He had been having those kinds of days for a lot more often then usual... ever sense _she _showed up...

His train of thought was cut off abruptly as his father's morning ritual began...

"GOOD MORNING ICHIGOOOO...," said Isshin Kurosaki, as he launched himself feet first towards his son's seemingly sleeping form, "...OMPF..."

Only to impale himself on Ichigo waiting fist...

The citrus haired youth sat up, his perma scowl twisted into its position of annoyance, as he watched his father nurse his possibly broken nose on the ground, tears of pride, or pain spilling from his eyes.

"You've learned well my son..." bawled the man child that was Isshin, as he pushed himself to his feet and turn for the door... until to turn around abruptly and launch himself at Ichigo again... obviously not having learned the first time... or the last several hundred times for that matter.

He sailed through the air toward his target, nothing could stop him...

That is until Ichigo opened the window behind him... and then moved out of the way...

Isshin, for his part, only screamed like a girl a few seconds before hitting the ground... and only cried for a few minutes after. He laid were he was spiraled on the grass, lamenting to his wife how poorly his children treated him.

The situation at hand over with, Ichigo was quick to close the window and latch it back into place. Partially to dull the sounds of Isshin's pathetic whimpers and proclamations of pride with regards to his son, and partially for his new tenet, or was it tenets now.

"Oye Rukia, you can come out now..."

The muffled sounds of shuffling came from within his closet, before the door tentatively slid open, reveling the short petite figure of Rukia Kuchiki. Tiredly she pushed herself out of the closet, eyes held shut in the face of the morning light.

"You weren't kidding when you said he did that every morning," she said, as she began the process of waking up, rubbing the sleep out her eyes, and stretching out in an attempt to get the blood flowing, "...I don't how much longer I can put up with the sounds of you two fighting to the death every morning."

"At least you don't have to live with him," Ichigo retorted, already fully awake and shuffling through his dresser for his uniforms.

"Let's just change and head to school already... the sooner we get out of here the better..."

At this Rukia raised her eyebrow, noting that he was in one of his moods today, heaving a sigh of discontent as he left to change in the bathroom, leaving her to change in his room. Alone now, she fell back against his bed, not fully ready to get on with the day just yet...

'_Hmm...warm..._,' she thought drowsily as she snuggled into the blankets...

An instant later she shot up and slapped herself in the face a bit, partially to rouse herself from the remnants of slumber, and partially to dislodge any thoughts of... _that_... from her mind. She had no idea when she started thinking about, _that_... it just happened... as much of a cliché as that was, it was the truth...

An inconvenient one at that, she could not afford any attachments to this boy, hell she wasn't even supposed to talk to him. Everything had become so complicated sense that night, and this damnable gigai wasn't helping at all.

'_Damn that Urahara selling me defective merchandise... preferred customer my ass_,' Rukia thought as she finally began the process of changing into her school uniform, making a mental note to pay the shop keeper a very violent visit later on.

Weather she knew it or not, she eventually ended up agreeing with Ichigo.

It was going to be one of those days...

* * *

He awoke to the sound of ringing, the echoes of his nightmares fading away back into the recess of his waking mind. He lay motionless in his bed for awhile longer, seemingly unable or unwilling to move, not even to stop the incessant noise blaring next to his head.

Five minutes of the non stop ringing and he finally stirred, sitting up and fumbling with the alarm on the stand next to his bed. After a few frustrating moments of trying and failing to get the infernal contraption to stop, a snarl escaped the man's lips as he hurled the non complying device against his wall, smashing it into pieces...

Awake fully at last, the man pushed himself into a sitting position at the edge of his dead, rubbing the few remaining fragments of sleep from his eyes. Briefly vivid images assaulted his mind, remnants of the nightmares that plagued him on a nightly basis.

A deep calming breath expunged such thoughts with the ease of practice, and the men began his morning ritual.

His hand slid over to the nightstand that used to hold his alarm clock, opening the drawer and taking out a six shooter revolver, the first gun he ever bought,which he got for one sole purpose...

With confident fingers he slid the cylinder out and fingered the single bullet he kept in the gun, the first bullet he ever bought... meant for the same purpose. He gave the cylinder a quick twist, spinning it round and round, until he jerked the cylinder back into place, snapping it shut, and pulling the hammer of the gun back until it locked into place.

He pressed the barrel of the gun against his right temple, finding the grove that marked the prefect spot from memory alone...

He pulled the trigger...

The hallow noise of the hammer snapping against air, signified that he was meant to live another day.

A grim sigh escaped his lips, as he replaced the gun back in the drawer he had pulled it from, running hand through his silver hair as he fell back against his bed and counted the cracks in the ceiling, as his mind wondered...

'_2354 times I've played that game... statistically speaking I should of died about... 392 times now..._ ," thought the silver haired boy, searching for the will to crawl out of bed and start the day.

He didn't really have a choice, he started school today, and skipping the first day of school would make it harder to skip all the other ones later on...

Wearily he pushed himself to his feet and made ready for the day...

Half an hour later, the boy was dressed in the unformed the school had oh so graciously provided him. He tucked his lunch box into his back pack, and grabbed the keys to his motorcycle, before heading out the door, the sun glittering off a red jeweled necklace tucked securely around his neck.

He hadn't even made it to school, and he could already tell... it was gonna be one of those days...

* * *

The walk to school, was usually a loud affair when it involved Ichigo and Rukia. More often then not a fight would start from one observational comment or another, usually directed towards Rukia's hieght or Ichigo's intelligence... and then that would lead into a fight about something else entirely... and then that would lead into a proverbial shouting match... and then, more often then not, Ichigo would end up hopping to school on one leg, with a new bruise added to the growing collection accumulating on his shins.

Today was different though, silence permeated the space between the two of them, thickening to the air to the point where it was phyiscally hard to breath with the sheer amount of tension choking them. It was eerie, for Ichigo at least, the lack of verbal, and or physical, abuse from the midget to his right was not something he was not accustomed too. It made him paranoid, visions of things to horrible to describe danced in the back of mind as he pondered what exactly Rukia was so busy thinking about...

In fact, he was so deep in thought himself, that he missed the roaring sound of a motorcycle engine as it barreled down the street at a speed that was only barely legal...

Oblivious to his surroundings as usual, Ichigo barely registered his own step onto the black top, when a dainty hand gripped his shoulder firmly, and yanked him back with all of its considerable force...

Ichigo jerked back to reality, literally and metaphorically, as the motorcycle speed off into the distance, heading the same they were, Ichigo noted absentmindedly...

"IDIOT," said Rukia in that annoyingly superior voice that Ichigo had come to associate with her, "Are you trying to get yourself killed, or did you forget how to stop walking?"

Well... it WAS quiet anyways...

* * *

The motorcycle driver looked over his shoulder at the rapidly disappearing figures of the two teenagers he had nearly ran over...

They weren't human, he could tell that much alone in the fleeting fraction of a second he had been in close proximity to them. The air around them was different, the alarm that went off in the back of his head when something was wrong, was going off like a fire alarm. The one with orange hair was partially oozing his inhuman presence, irradiating the area like the aftermath of Chernobyl. His hands involuntarily tightened their grip on the handle bars of the bike, as he sped on toward school, his thoughts racing at the implications.

'_Their matching uniforms indicate they are going to the same place as me, I'll have to keep an eye on them_,' he thought as he turned into the school parking lot, casually brushing off the looks and exclamations of awe from the other students as he rapidly slowed the two wheeled vehicle down, and slid to halt into the student parking space.

Kickstand in place, and engine off, he dismounted the bike and gave it a quick once over, checking the compartments where he kept the tools of his trade stashed, just in case things got dicey. Satisfied that everything was in place, he removed his helmet and looked about to examine his... peers...

A wicked half grin formed on his face, as he took in the sights...

'_Wow... I always heard japanese women were hot... but damn...' _he thought as he grabbed his book bag and swung it over his shoulder, shamelessly checking out the fairer side of the student body. Another wisp of orange hair caught his eye, and he turned expecting to see the face of the kid he almost ran over back down the road. He appreciated the fact that this one was female... he really appreciated it... especially her... assets... and her black haired friend next to her wasn't bad either... not bad at all...

The half grin twisted further into a full on smirk as Dante turned back towards the school, '_well at least the curriculum looks interesting...'_

* * *

Rukia walked onto the school grounds, and almost instantly her happy innocent school girl disguise was on, causing her to smile and wave her arms as she skipped over to her friends Orihime and Tasukia. Ichigo limped on behind her, his normal scowled amplified by the annoyance caused by her _"act"._

'_If you wanna call that acting_,' he thought to himself as he limped over to join his friends in the few minutes before the first bell rang, '_How she can fool anyone with... that... I'll never know_.'

"ICHIGOOOO," cried Kegio as he rushed forth to embrace his friend, only to impale himself on Ichigo's fist, just as Isshin had not but a few hours before. A black cloud of rejection fell over him as he curled up into a little ball on the ground and wept over how no one loved him...

Chad grunted his greeting to Ichigo, who responded with equal enthusiasm, sitting down next to him in the circle his friends had formed against the wall of the school. Unconsciously his hand began to massage his aching and abused shins.

"Whats up with your leg Ichigo, you been walking on it funny for awhile now..." asked Mizuiro from were he was kneeling next to the crying Keigo, semi trying to consul him.

"Its nothing," Ichigo said in his typical tough guy manner, turning his head to glare in Rukia's direction, "I just hit it on a bench one to many times... A very, very SHORT bench..."

Barely half a second after the words had left his mouth, Rukia looked up from where she was talking with the other girls in their class, to send a withering glare in Ichigo's direction... AS IF SHE JUST KNEW...

'_How the hell does she always do that_?' Ichigo thought, as he turned his attention back to his friends...

The conversation remained light and idle for awhile, although Ichigo barely paid attention to it, something about a new kid and a motorcycle, he was in and out for the most part. There was something he just couldn't shake from the back of his mind, it was bugging the crap out of him, and it was distracting as hell. It was like a lingering presence, something close, yet fair away, and try as he might he couldn't make it out...

He snapped back to attention, as Chad rose to his feet, nudging him slightly to indicate the bell had rung and it was time to head to class. Ichigo blinked, and inclined his head as a manner of thanks before pushing himself to his feet, and making his way into the building. In the press of the crowd, he intentionally wound up walking next to Rukia for the majority of the trip. They ignored each other as best they could, which wasn't that good, but appearances had to be maintained, and it wouldn't do to have add fire to the rumors that were already circulating about the two of them...

Nevertheless... some things just need to be said...

"Oye, Rukia..." Ichigo semi whispered to the black haired girl next to him, intent on getting her attention, and her attention alone.

Despite the loud noise of the idle conversation of the other students, Rukia managed to pick his voice out, and turned to hear what he had to say.

"I've been having this funny feeling ever sense we got here..." he said, looking distracted and confused to Rukia's eyes.

"So you've felt it too...," Rukia said abruptly, glad that at least she wasn't the only one.

"I guess, so... what is it... it kinda feels like a hollow... but... I don't know... different..."

"I'm not sure what it is... I don't think its a hollow though... I would have received an alert from Soul society if it was..."

"Well what do you think it is then?"

"I just said I don't know."

"Well your no help at all then."

At this Rukia sent another withering glare at him, causing Ichigo to instinctively take a few steps away from her. He was surprised when, instead of hurting him, she simply cast her eyes about to make sure no one was looking, before speeding her pace up to walk a half a step in front of him. Ichigo blinked at this strange behavior, inwardly heaving a sigh of relief for his abused shins... Until Rukia took another step forward, then snapped her heal back to land squarely into the center of Ichigo shin.

If Ichigo were a less prideful man, he probably would have ended up dragging himself to class...

* * *

In his seat, next to Rukia, he opted out of glaring at her, instead focusing on the teacher, who seemed to be making a big deal out of something or other, a new student or what not... once again Ichigo really wasn't paying attention, just looking for something to distract him from the tazminian devil of a girl that was Rukia. He was only able to catch the last bit of what the teacher was saying.

"...and without further ado, here is our new foreign exchange student, fresh from America, Mr...hmm there seems to be an omission where his last name goes... oh well... Dante... why don't you come out and introduce yourself to the class."

Hushed whispered spiraled about the class, as endless theories and speculations surrounding this new mystery student circulated the class one final time, before cutting off as the subject matter walked in. The first thing Ichigo noticed was his hair, pure silver, and naturally so if he had to guess, immediately after that, he noticed an increase of giggling coming from the females of the class, and a renewal of the whispering from before. Before Ichigo could make anything more out of this the new kid, Dante was his name, bowed slightly at the waist, and made his introduction.

"...so...when does school let out on this half of the world again?"

* * *

**A/N: **Ah introductions, and first impressions are always so hard. I had a lot trouble working in Ichigo's and Rukia's relationship in this chapter, especially seeing as this is the first piece I've actually written about them. I think I got them pretty close around the second half, but not quite as fully as I would have wonted, hopefully I'll be able to flesh them out a little more...

I was planning on getting all the way to the first action scene this chapter, but I think it dragged it on long enough, so until then you'll have to make due with Rukia kicking Ichigo in the shin...that poor man...

Anyways, until next time, Read and Review as always, make sure to point out any mistakes I made, etc...

**Update: **Fixed some minor and major Grammatical and spelling errors pointed out to me... and some I discovered myself.

I'd also like to take this oppotunity to discuss the serious lack of reviews I've been getting. I don't mean to be pushy, but thus far I've gotten TWO reviews... BOTH of which are from the SAME PERSON... As it stands I have just enough motivation in me to get the third chapter down and see where it goes from there, but unless I get some manner of review or another from the rest of you, and I know there are more of you, the vistor count registers...

Look the point is, if I don't get more reviews... then I just don't see a reason to continue this story... the difference between me going on and calling it quits in the push of the button and a minimum of three words... and then another push of a button...

You get the idea...

Ok cutting off my inane rambling in... 3... 2.. 1...


	3. Chapter 2: The Best Laid Plans

**A/N:** Wow... so this is what getting reviews is like... is smells like... victory... or reads like it anyway.

I'd apologize for the late update, but that would insinuate that this isn't going to happen again, because it will happen again... more often then not as a matter of fact. Three things you can count on in life, death, taxes, and me updating late.

However never assume that I'll just drop the story, because I ever do decide to call it quits, I will be sure to inform you. I'll make it blaringly obvious no less, unless I died in some freak accident...

More to the point I give you the next chapter.

* * *

**_Bleach_**

**_The Devils Cry_**

**_Chapter 2: The Best Laid Plans of Strawberries and Shinigami_**

It took a few seconds for the alarms kick in for Ichigo, but when they did they very nearly leveled him where he sat. As Dante got himself introduced to the class, Ichigo felt a growing sense of panic, like the walls were closing in on him. Sweat beaded its way down his forehead and his breathes started coming out in ragged gasps.

Dante stood at the front of the class a few moments more, answering questions and what have you, the usual affair, "is that your natural hair color" and the ever popular "what are you 40?" His mind was else where though, focusing his concentration pass the idle chatter beyond the range of normal human sight. He found the air so thick with spiritual energy that Dante was surprised the students could breath with all the crap in the air.

A quick count confirmed his fears, there were two to three definite sources of spirit energy in this room alone, and anywhere between 6 to 7 partial sources. Things looked bad, and he didn't know who to trust, he may have very well left his troubles in America just to kick up even MORE trouble in Japan.

He noticed the teacher was talking to him again, a quick overview of what they were studying and what not, Dante as you can appreciate had more important things to worry about, like a classroom full of potentially demon possessed students...

The teacher pointed to an empty seat in the back, and Dante took this as a queue to take a seat so they could move on with the day.

He took his time striding down the aisle casting his mind about the room in an attempt to home in on the source of the spirit particles, he was close, very close indeed...

He turned his attention to the aisle ahead about halfway to his seat, when a flash of orange hair caught his eye.

'_Now if that ain't the kid I almost ran over I'll eat my hat_,' thought Dante, as a wicked half smile formed on his face in light of the irony.

Coincidence was one thing, but this was too much, the boy was definitely the one...and so was the girl to his right it seemed...

'_Well, best let them know what they were in for_,' thought Dante as he quickly hid his smirk, closing with the orange haired kid on his right, and the raven haired girl on his left.

Ichigo thought it was bad before, but it was just getting worse the closer that guy got. The alarm had gone from far away siren, to 'right next to my ear' siren, and it was beginning to take its toll on him. The instinct was almost overwhelming him, the instinct to do what he had no idea... something... ANYTHING... besides just sitting on his ass while... Ichigo ground his teeth and frustration and gripped his desk in frustration, his knuckles instantly turning white with the effort.

If Ichigo was more mindful of his surroundings he might of noticed that he was not alone in his adverse reaction. A certain bespectacled book worm at the head of the class, starred at the clean white paper in front of him so intensely, he might actually burn a hole through it if he wasn't careful. The pencil held in one hand, gave out under the strain snapping in half... then snapping in half again...

The orange haired girl felt it too, but more deluded then the others, and her dark haired friend next to her hardly noticed at all. She put on a smile determined not to let her worry despite how, invasive, the presence felt.

A grunt escaped the lips of Chad, and that was all, but then again that was enough...

Rukia, seemed perfectly fine, seemed that way anyway. If Ichigo had been paying attention he probably would have picked up on it, but he had other things on his mind at the moment.

And just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, it got worse.

Just as Dante strode past him, time slowed to a crawl, and the alarms in his head reached a breaking point, as the NORMAL kids around him suddenly became light headed, and as if by accident he locked eyes with the silver haired America... and froze...

If you could give hell a single specific color it would be the shade of red that shone froth from Dante's eyes at that moment...

Stunned Ichigo blinked, and suddenly Dante's eyes where a normal shade of grey blue...

He let out a breath he did not know he was holding as he slumped into his chair, as Dante reached his seat in the back, and sat down.

Suddenly the urge to do something was back, stronger then before, but Ichigo was familiar with this urge, the urge to protect In a semi dazed state he very nearly rose from his seat to fight Dante right in the midst of class...

"Ichigo..." a familiar voice to his right whispered to him, causing Ichigo to snap back to reality sharply

He turned to face Rukia, who held a look of steely determination in her eyes...and something else...

"...calm down...relax...breath..."

Strangely enough Ichigo actually felt the tension ease up at her, oddly soothing words, taking more controlled breathes as he relinquished the death grip on his desk. It took a moment for Ichigo to gather himself, before he turned to look at Rukia again. His eyes said it all, as did her's.

'_We need to talk..._'

'_I know, try to bare it until then..._'

'_I will if you will..._'

Rukia nodded in understanding, before turning back to the front of the class at the same time as Ichigo. Whatever the hell, THAT was, they would be ready for it, and they'd deal with it.

Meanwhile, not so far away in the back of the class Dante observed his possible enemies exchange, adding 'telepathy' to the list of powers to watch out for. He smiled at his handy work despite himself, he had successfully gotten under their skin, shown them he meant business and he wasn't afraid.

Yes the gauntlet had been thrown down, now all he had to do was wait.

'_Your move kid_,' he said smugly, as he leaned back into his chair, settling in for the actual class to start.

* * *

The second the bell for lunch rang, Ichigo and Rukia were off, raising more then a few comments. Normally adding fuel to the fires of the rumors about the two of them would have bothered Ichigo, but for once he had more important things then his reputation to worry about. They hurried out of class, weaving their way around Dante, not looking for a confrontation just yet anyway.

Normally they waited until school let out to discuss things, but that wasn't really an option when the very threat sat barely three seats behind them.

The roof was out, as it would no doubt be swarming with people shortly, and getting outside the school and then getting back inside would waste more time then they actually had. Fortunately Rukia was quick enough to think of an alternative.

"Great plan Rukia...," said Ichigo in a mocking tone, as he fumbled around in the darkness of the supply closet, "Lets go to the darkest, smelliest place in the whole damn school, AND FORGET TO TURN ON THE LIGHT SWITCH BEFORE CLOSING THE DOOR!!!"

Rukia sent a glare in Ichigo's general direction, made rather ineffective due to the lack of light, but she wasn't one to let a little thing like zero visibility stop her. Of course she had only the vaguest idea what a light switch actually was, but like hell was she going to let Ichigo know that.

"Well at least it was better then your plan...grr...damn it Ichigo we don't have time for this..." Rukia said, frustration warring with her sense of duty, as she tried to remain calm in the face of Ichigo's growing irritation.

An exasperated sigh was Ichigo's only response as he finally found the elusive light switch, turning on a partially burnt out flickering light on the ceiling. The room looked as bad as it smelled, but Ichigo couldn't concentrate on that, hell he couldn't even bring himself to continue arguing with Rukia, not after what he had just seen.

"Rukia..." he said, surprised at how solemn he sounded, "What the Hell was..._that_..."

Rukia blinked at him, taken a back at the lack of retort, it took her a moment to respond, and even then it wasn't much help.

"I...I'm not sure..." she said finally, her voice uneasy as she recalled the sensation of Dante's power surge...it wasn't unlike a hollow's, yet at the same time it was different, too different...

'_Damn it, Ichigo isn't prepared for something like this....hell **I'M** not ready for something like this...this could very well be a new breed of hollow, one that can infiltrate human society itself...either that or something else...something else entirely...' _though Rukia, her mind running a mile per minute connecting dots that didn't exist, and making rationalizations based solely on conjecture.

Her hands went to her temples, partially to clear away the mounting stress and partially in a vain attempt to massage some sort of answer from her frontal lobe. She had been able to keep a brave front up in class for Ichigo sake, but it all seemed so hopeless, if that brief spark was anything to go by, Dante could easily be classified into one of the menos stages...and even if he wasn't a hollow then what the hell were they supposed to do with him...Rukia was not surprised at all to find she had no answers for her questions.

Ichigo watched Rukia silently from the other side of the supply room watching her go from confused to pondering to frustrated to, something else he couldn't make out in the dim light. Unconsciously he stepped forward to get a better look, when suddenly she turned to face him, eyes cast to the ground. Defeated, that was the word he was looking for.

Ichigo didn't like that look, not on Rukia's face, not one bit. Why didn't he like that look? Well that was something he could figure out later, right now he was seething mad at a certain silver haired man, and he was going to make sure Rukia snapped out of whatever funk she was in.

"Rukia," he said, fiery resolve laced through his voice, "Get your glove out..."

Rukia snapped up from her pondering, the look of confusion renewed on her face.

"What!?"

"I can't very well kick that guy's ass in my school uniform..."

Rukia stood where she was, involuntarily drawn into Ichigo's burning auburn eyes, shocked that he would even consider just recklessly trying to fight something they both knew nothing about, right in the middle of a school no less. Part of her wanted to revert back to just kicking him in the shin, and calling him an idiot.

And yet...

"Alright fine, wait here then..." Ichigo said, interrupting Rukia's thought process as he turned towards the door, "...I'll just go get that stupid stuffed lion get some used out of his hide."

"Ichigo..."

And suddenly calm, collected, and in control Rukia was back, grasping Ichigo's shoulder firmly and impeding his attempts to implement his stupid plan.

Ichigo froze under her touch, slowly turned to face her, glad to have her back to normal, but also expecting a kick to his shins for trying to go through with his admittedly stupid plan. Closing his eyes he mentally and physically braced himself for the impact...

"Just...wait..."

...that never came.

"We can't go charging off sword's raised in ever situation, this will require tact, which I know is a new concept to you, but you'll just have to learn on the go," Rukia said, her authoritative voice in place, as well as a half formed smirk, signifying the return of her confidence.

"So then, what do we do, or master of tact," Ichigo said, in an annoyed sarcastic voice, not at all amused by the subtle insult in Rukia's words.

At this Rukia's half smirk completed itself, becoming the symbol of how much better she was better then Ichigo in every way possible.

"...we wait."

* * *

Sand, nothing but sand...

And endless desert as far as any eye could see, nothing but dust, and echoes.

Shadows, illuminated by a dead sun hanging eternally high in the sky, writhe and twist on the ground, driven by a single need.

The need to be whole...

When suddenly, they stopped, frozen upon the ground sensing, something they hadn't sense in nearly two thousand years.

Slowly the shadows took shape, each one a new and exciting mockery of life, the only unifying factor being the bone white mask adorning each of their grotesques heads.

Slowly they stalked towards their intended prey, clawing their way through the frail thin line that divided their world, and the world of the living.

They were hungry...but then again...they were always hungry...

* * *

The rest of the day passed by with relative uneventfulness, although it was still frustratingly long for Dante, who had been ready to leave sense about, 30 minutes after he arrived. The moment the final bell rang he was already gone, out to his bike, where he picked his trade mark red leather jacket from another compartment on the side of his motorcycle. He stuffed the school button up shirt into the compartment, and booked it out of there.

He didn't go home, not after spending the whole damn day cramped up in that room, no he needed to feel the wind in his hair again, get the lead out.

And besides, it would keep the two kids following him on their toes...

* * *

Ichigo growled in annoyed frustration as his target took ANOTHER last minute turn. Having switched to Shinigami form and stuck his body in an alley way underneath some cardboard boxes, Ichigo wasted no time in tailing Dante as he speed around town at break neck speed, with seemingly no destination in mind.

And if that wasn't bad enough...

"He's making a left up there Ichigo, COME ON KEEP UP..."

He also had to deal with a controlling midget back seat driver.

Rukia wasn't exactly having the time of her life ethier, but it was curial that they keep Dante in their sight as much as possible. They needed information before they could confront him, and the only way to get that, besides just walking up and asking for it, was tailing him like a shadow. Thankfully an arm band, that Rukia had 'barrowed' from Urahara's shop, allowed Ichigo to reign in his normally, unstable at best, spiritual pressure, at the cost of about ¾ his strength.

Which way, when they did finally stop the infernal chase, Ichigo didn't so much land on the roof overlooking Dante, as slam into it face first. Rukia, dusted herself off and climbed off Ichigo's back, unhurt from his crash landing, while Ichigo peeled himself off the gravel roof, and silently snuck over to the edge of the roof.

Sure enough, there was Dante, reclined against his motorcycle, a massive sword held idly in one hand, and a black pistol twirling on a finger of the other. He didn't have time to notice anything else however, as Rukia's 'soul phone' suddenly went off.

Fortunately Rukia had the foresight to set the thing to vibrate, yet the look in her eyes was no where near relieved.

'_Hollows,_' she mouthed to Ichigo, who nodded his understanding.

'_Where_?' he mouthed back.

Rukia looked back at her phone for a moment, before a look of surprised horror crossed her face.

"Here," she said, even as space in the street bellow began to distort, and a long, almost mournful wail echoed shattered the silence of the night.

* * *

**A/N: **Damn me, and my cliff hangers eh? All two of them thus far.

Alright I give to you people the third chapter in this soon to be epic saga, I know I know I said I'd have more action in this chapter, but hey that's the thing about people, sometimes they make promises they have to break, and I got a full week ahead of me, so I figured you guys would appreciate SOMETHING to show I hadn't just buggered off the face of the earth.

Now then Reviewer response time...

**SplitToInfinity – **Thank you for reviewing BOTH my chapters with out any overt attempts to trick...I mean talk you...into it. Also thanks for pointing out my grammatical mistakes, as I was painfully ignorant of them myself, which is rather sad given how glaringly bad some of them were. Again thank you again, and I award you the **_Gold Star of Reviewing _**for your efforts.

**Kidcrud** – Thank you for rewieing BOTH my chapters, and for falling for my attempts to tri...talk you into reviewing. In response to your question, Virgil will be showing up later on in the introduction arc, don't worry he'll be in there, and yes he will kick ass. And because no one else qualified I award you both the **_Silver Star of Reviewing _**and the **_Bronze Star of Reviewing._**

And to everyone else, thank you for your time, and your words of encouragement, I wouldn't be able to keep going on without them.

And to end on a high note, the next chapter should be up relatively quickly thanks to the fact that it's MUCH more action oriented, which happens to be my specialty...if I do say so myself...and I DO say so myself...anyone got a problem with that...

No? Good, then I'll see you next update, until then...


	4. Chapter 3: Along Came A Spider

**A/N: **Well not quite as soon as I would have liked, but hey at least I'm consistent.

Quick error I would like to rectify, to all of those who reviewed and felt ripped off for not getting an award, I apologize.

As a token of my most sincere apologies, I here by award all of you the "_**I can't believe that bastard didn't give me an award**_,"award for your contributions, because without all of you people, I would even know if anyone was actually paying attention to me when I ramble inanely like this...

Oh...right...story...yea we should probably get around to that...

_**

* * *

Bleach**_

_**The Devils Cry**_

_**Chapter 3: Along Came a Spider...  
**_

* * *

Dante probably would have kept riding his motorcycle well into the night, smiling like a bastard the whole way no less. But, he felt...something...familiar...yet not so much...

He had already reached what seemed to be the source of the disturbance, and was reclining against his motorcycle too deep in thought to remember that he was still being followed. He was trying to nail the source of this disturbance...the obvious already ruled out...no they were never this subtle. That left two other possible causes, either his possibly demonic guests, or something else.

Now Dante had encountered spiritual activity before, hell the majority of his life lately had been escaping one source of '_activity_' after another.

But this was different, it felt...empty...like knocking on a wall...there was a word for it, sitting on the edge of his tongue...

Suddenly a long and powerful roar shattered the calm of the night air, emanating from no where and everywhere at once...

Hollow, that was the word he was looking for...

And as several black holes tore themselves open in the sky above Dante, creatures came forth, a dozen or so, each black as ink with white masks in place of their faces. All of them had holes running clean through each of their chests, synonymous with the empty nature of their spiritual energy. As one they roared a challenge at their chosen meal, reveling two rows of teeth, literally salivating at the prospect of the meal to come.

"Well..." began Dante, as he rose to his full height and began slowly striding towards the 'hollows' a cocky grin spread wide across his face, "The welcome wagon at last, sorry to say you caught me at a bad time I didn't even bring you guys anything to eat..."

An animal intelligence stayed the hollows' hands, they stayed back, waiting for an opening to present itself...for 5 seconds...until one launched itself forward, either driven by boldness or mad hunger, his mouth open wide in an attempt to take Dante's head.

A length of steel, nearly as long as it's wielder, pierced it from open mouth through the back of it's head.

"I guess you'll just have to make due with a balanced dinner of iron, but hey at least it's good for the bones...or something...," said Dante as he savagely twisted the blade and ripped it out of the already dead hollow's mouth, decapitating it from the jaw up.

Black bleed streaked the length of Rebellion as the hollow corpse disintegrated before it hit the ground. A wild grin spread across his lips Dante turned back to the assembled hollows, still stoic and somber, unaffected by the ease of their fellow's gruesome death.

"Dinner is served," he said with an exaggerated bow, even as his Shinigami on lookers winced at the horrible pun.

With that the remaining hollow launched forward as one, roaring as the arced across the sky towards their pray. A hail of gun fire met them halfway, tearing a number of them straight from the sky, disintegrating even as they fell from the sky.

Three of the largest made it through the lead screen, soaking up the bullets and landing before Dante kicking up a huge dust cloud that enveloped all four of them. The sound of flesh being parted by steel emanated from the dust cloud, even as more hollows joined the fray, expanding the cloud outwards in all directions.

Cries of pain, the occasional spray of black blood, and severed limbs all spilled froth from within the dust.

Suddenly an arc of crimson electricity crackled to life, illuminating the figure of Dante, his sword in mid swing buried deep in the chest of a pray mantis esc hollow. Suddenly he spun around just in time to face down a looming shadow that momentarily blocked out the red glow of the lightening.

For about 2 seconds...

When a red slash of abruptly exploded through the shadow, sending rapidly disintegrating bits of hollow everywhere, even as it continued down the road, blowing the dust away and cracking windows on both sides of the street leaving 4 hollows dead in it's wake.

Already over half the hollows that had decided Dante would make a good a snack were now dead...and the fight had begun barely a minute or so ago...

"The end...," said Dante as he eyed the already battered hollows, keeping their distance from their pray.

Suddenly a new roar echoed from behind, as the rest of the dust cloud finally settled revealing a fresh horde of hollows supplementing the others. As one the two groups converged upon the silver haired man, charging in mad with hunger. Dante lifted his sword to rest on his shoulders as the hollows closed in on him, a dangerous gleam in his now red eyes, as red energy arced up and down his body.

"...don't bet on it," he finished, and half a second later he was moving, his sword lancing forward, spearing a bull headed hollow through the throat, before lancing to the left to crave a black and bloody trench in the chest of another.

And on the slaughter went, Dante flowing from one killing blow to the next, knocking a hollow down for every swing of his sword.

He finished another of the hollows, cutting it in two from hip to shoulder, even as he spun around, ducking low under an incoming fist to bisect another hollow at the waist. A fountain of black blood erupted from the sternum and legs a moment before they disintegrated altogether.

Dante was now covered in patches of black blood, his silver hair now the color of salt and paper. A cocky smirk was plastered across his face despite his appearance, and the red hue in his eyes was alight with joy, seemingly revealing in the violence.

And then he brought Ivory, the lighter of his twin pistols, to bare...

The fights descended into a slaughter storm, at the center stood Dante, a proverbial whirlwind of blades and bullets, moving faster and faster, beyond what the human could track.

You could count the remaining hollow's left on two hands, and still have the majority left over on one. The dark holes in the sky had stopped opening, and it seemed that the party was finally winding down.

'_Getting so a guy can't even get a descent workout anymore_,' thought Dante, pausing to examine his opposite pistol, Ebony, seemingly oblivious of the shadow that loomed over him.

At the last second Dante launched himself into the air, landing on the shoulder blades of the stunned hollow, who didn't even have time to register he had missed his target before two bullets lobotomized him.

Three hollows were all that was left, and they charged with the same blind vigor that had led them to this outmatched fight in the first place. Dante launched himself from the disintegrating hollow's back, as one of the hollow's leapt up to meet him.

Dante landed, first already in the midst of the other two hollows, and his challenger landed shortly thereafter, his head about 15ft further away from it's neck then it should be...

One final swipe finished the hollows before they could react, cutting them both in half at the waist. A displeased crossed Dante's face, as the final corpse disappeared into the air.

"Just when things start to get good," said Dante aloud to no one in particular, sheathing his sword and heading back over to his bike.

"Isn't there anyone in this place with some guts," he shouted aloud to the sky, still in mid stride, arms raised in a beckoning manner, as if he actually expected someone to meet his challenge.

He was not disappointed.

A final black portal, larger then all the others, opened up above the street, just over Dante's bike.

And out of the portal fell a MASSIVE spider like creature, with an exoskeleton of pure white, and joints that glowed like fire. A white mask adorned the head of the beast, with a single fist sized hole on what would have been the spider's thorax.

He landed on the street before Dante, crushing his bike in a shower of sparks, and kicking up a whole new dust that enveloped the bewildered, and now pissed off Dante, who cleared the dust with a causal burst of crimson highlighted power.

As the dust settled the two combatants eyed the other up, even as Dante resumed his steady walk to where he bike once rested. Strangely enough, the spider itself was the first to speak.

"Bah," it said, it's voice deep and grating, seemingly at two different pitches at once, one of which sounded like it was gurgling nails.

"Another small one, I sensed something a little bigger, what a disappointing catch," the spider said with a sneering laugh.

"What a big surprise," Dante said in a low angry voice, as his hand trailed back to grip the handle of his sword strapped to his back, "I hope for your sake you've got something inside that big body of yours."

"You Puny pathetic thing," the spider hollow said, angry that the worm did not cower before him as it should, "I'll steep on you like an ant AH HA HA HA,"

By now Dante was within striking distance, and the great beast reared up on it's back pair of legs, releasing a bone chilling roaring, before bringing it's massive right leg down...

* * *

Meanwhile the Orange haired substitute Shinigami, Ichigo Kurosaki, and the out of commission midget Shinigami Rukia Kuchiki, watched the exchange with a vested interest.

The hollows had ignored them for the most part, with Ichigo drained of the majority of his spirit energy, and Rukia already drained as she was, their were bigger fish to fry so to speak.

As it turned out, the hollow's themselves barely registered as bait on Dante's radar it seemed, and they were slaughtered to a man in the space of several minutes, without so much as wounding their intended target. It was jarring for Ichigo to watch, the cold hard slap in the face that came when reality showed you that you weren't as big as you thought you were stunning the usual loud mouth into silence.

And yet somehow, it was still worse for Rukia to watch, she who had been practicing for to be Shinigami for nigh on 100 some odd years, and then out of no where this...whatever the hell Dante was...comes out of no where and lays absolute waste to a small horde of hollows without so much as a tear in his clothing. Part of her was infuriated that the bastard made it look so damn easy, and yet that part was smothered by a fear that grew the longer the fight went on.

And then the spider dropped from the sky...

A small gasp escaped from Rukia's lips, even as a look of horrified recognition crossed her face, and in a small voice she said one word, "...Phantom."

At this Ichigo snapped back to reality, turning to Rukia wondering what she just said.

"What," he asked, unintentionally whispering as well, despite himself.

"Phantom...he's a...hollow....incredibly old....just as powerful...but...but he hasn't been seen in nearly 2000 thousand years...why is he here...why now...," said Rukia, reveling much more then she had intended, but her cognitive functions were else where at the moment, coming to a single conclusion.

"Ichigo...we have to get out of here...NOW!" she demanded, looking from the street and back to the Ichigo back and forth rapid fire in a paranoid manner.

'_Even with all my powers, I couldn't hope to defeat a Menos Adjuchas like Phantom, if Ichigo fights...he'll...' _thought Rukia, tugging on Ichigo shirt in an attempt to drive her point home.

And before Ichigo even had time to protest, a sudden explosion of dust and power sent them both flying across the roof to skid to a hault on the opposite side, spiraled out laying on top of each other. Ichigo barely had time to blush at their compromising position, before a roar split the air come the street they had just been watching.

Rukia barely paid attention to their position, despite how very warm Ichigo's chiseled chest felt, and paid even less attention to the new roar raising from behind them. The cold fear in her chest would not leave, and it's distracting influence blinded her from all things except for the need to just...get away...

In fact she didn't even notice she was bleeding until Ichigo did. It must have been from one of the rocks in the last explosion, and already red blood was flowing from a laceration on his right fore arm. Ichigo sat up in concern pausing only long enough to examine the wound, as Rukia went into shock.

"Alright you win, let's get out of here," said Ichigo, ripping a piece of his robe and tying it around Rukia arm.

Ichigo was on his feet an instant later, scooping Rukia up in his arms as he went, and leaped from the roof to a nearby adjacent roof. He didn't like the prospect of running, but if they had stayed Ichigo had a gut feeling they would have both died anyway, accomplishing nothing.

'_Besides,'_ thought Ichigo grimly, as he leapt from another roof top, the barely conscious Rukia clutched tight against his chest_, 'Maybe it'll kill Dante and save us whatever trouble the bastard was planning.'_

Ichigo, had no idea why, and he really shouldn't have any reason to think so, but he highly doubted that would be the case...

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the street Dante was fairing little better then the two Shinigami. His bike was totally trashed, his night totally shot all to hell, and an eight ton spider thing was trying to crush him 'like an ant.'

'_And me with no bug spray,'_ thought Dante, as he rolled out of the way of another leg stomp, lashing out with rebellion in mid roll. The sword skidded off the rock hard skin, leaving barely a scratch on the white surface for it's trouble. And so it went, with the Phantom unable to 'crush' Dante, and Dante unable to find a weak point in the bug's armor.

Dante slid to a stop on the end of another roll, he was done running, and sword held aloft he charged the hollow spider, named Phantom, a roar of anger to match his smoldering red eyes.

Once again the Phantom reared up, answering Dante's roar with one of it's own, eager to crush the bug once and for all.

Giving Dante the perfect opening...

And suddenly the Phantom's roar of anger changed to a roar of pain, as something long and sharp pierced it's soft underbelly. It looked down to find Dante there, his sword buried half it's length in a length of fire red skin, spilling buckets full of glowing blood from the open wound.

The roar of pain swiftly changed back to rage, as the Phantom quickly seized Dante, moving far faster then it had before, and throw him down the street to crash into the side of a parked car. He was livid with fury, both at himself and the insect that had DARED to touch HIM to spill HIS blood.

Fury boiled his molten rock blood, and in his fury he cut off his roaring, leaving his mouth agape point straight at Dante, who was still struggling to pry himself from the twisted metal frame of the car.

The sight would have been almost comical except from the bright red ball of energy that gathered in the Phantom's mouth, cackling with dark power and evil intent and aimed directly at Dante.

Dante for his part, considered just dodging out of the way of the soon to be attack just to spite the bastard, but then again he had a better idea.

"Ever seen a show called DBZ," Dante asked the spider, sure he couldn't hear him, but never one to pass up a good joke, even as he reached back to his holster pulling ebony free as red energy cracked and cackled to life along the whole of his frame, and a dark red and black glow outlined his body.

The air between the two thickened with spiritual pressure as the already cracked windows of the street cracked even further, and several fire hydrants lining the street spontaneously exploded, sending water flying high into the sky, even as the energy levels of both combatants hit their peak.

Dark power coursed from Dante's body down the barrel of Ebony, with bolts of red lightening arcing up and down the length of the gun, even as the Phantom's Cero reached optimum size.

And then an intense beam of red light shot forth from Phantom's mouth...

As Dante pulled the trigger, and a spiraling beam of dark red launched forth to meet it...

Even as the already battered windows gave out, shattering under the pressure, and the water from the fire hydrants stopped running as the pipes fused together.

And then the attacks collided...

* * *

Inoue Orohime looked up from where she was playing scrabble with her friend Tasuki. She had been having an odd feeling all night long, and now she just got the biggest shiver run down her spine.

"Whats wrong Orohime," asked Tasuki, concerned as her friend shivered despite the moderate temperature of the room.

"Oh nothing," said Orohime, wiping her suddenly sweaty brow with a handkerchief she kept handy, "Just felt a draft is all."

Tasuki didn't look like she was buying it all and, was about to press for more information, when Orohime's imagination reared it's head, causing her to rationalize the sudden chill with the surprising plausible possibility that her home must be possessed, and how she would need an exorcism, and it pretty much went on like that for half an hour...

* * *

Chad rose from the futon laid out in his room, roused by something. He sat there staring in the abyss, as if challenging it to part and revel some information about something he didn't even know about.

Silent as always, he lay back down on the futon staring at the ceiling, counting the dots that adorned it.

He did not go back to sleep that night.

* * *

Uryuu Ishida had felt the presence of hollows attacking his city, and armed with his bow he prepared himself to face what he suspected was a sizeable amount of the monsters. He didn't trust the Shinigami to deal with this mess, not even slightly. Abruptly he stopped in his preparation, Quincy uniform halfway on...

He could no longer sense the hollows were gone.

Barely five minutes after they show up, every, single, one of them , just, gone.

Silently he cursed himself, and reached out with his spiritual awareness...

He was surprised at what he found, which was surprising in and of itself for the normally stoic and somber teen.

He felt a single presence, not the team of Shinigami he had suspected, hell it wasn't even a Shinigami at all, and yet, it was familiar.

Then the gears clicked and whistles went off, as the Phantom made his jarring appearance, very nearly flooring the Quincy where he was. Reeling back form the sudden appearance of the Menos Adjuchas, Uyruu took a moment to gather his wits before plunging back to the street, almost at the same time as the two attacks collided.

This time the Quincy WAS floored, as what felt like the equivalent of a fire cracker going off in his brain sent him spiraling to the ground in his bedroom. A pool of blood gathered around where his head had smashed violently into the floor.

He did not move...

* * *

Dante was lucky the resulting explosion was mostly invisible to normal people, as it probably would have woken up every one in the city. Despite the fact that the residential region was all the other side of Karakura.

As it was, the few cars that were parked in the street were sent flying away from the explosion by the shockwave, and Dante dropped to the ground as one such vehicle came very close to slamming into him. While down the street the Phantom shrugged off the impacts of the cars, crushing them under his much move massive feet.

The dust from the attacked settled reveling what looked like ground zero of a small earthquake. Jagged cracks ran up and down the street, and broken glass and twisted metal lay everywhere, even as the buildings themselves sagged in their foundations.

And further on down the street, stood the Phantom, even more pissed off then before by the looks of it, and for a moment he looked ready to renew his attack, when suddenly he stopped.

"Bah, to cramped here for a proper slaughter, we'll finish this later BOY," he said, even as he sank into a new portal that opened beneath his feet.

"Boy huh, whatever happened to Ant?"

At this even the Phantom laughed, but any rebuttal he might have had was choked off as he fully submerged into the portal. Leaving Dante to stand alone at the corner of what used to be 5th and Nagaski Avenue.

And the first thing that came to Dante's mind at that moment.

"Ok...how the hell am I getting home?"

* * *

Ichigo finished his race home, stopping to retrieve his body along the way, a few minutes after the explosion went off. Fortunately his numb senses barely registered with all the background spirit pressure Dante and the Phantom were giving off.

Rukia, however was not so fortunate. She snapped up from where she had been laid out on Ichigo's bed, nearly head butting Ichigo as he cleaned and redressed her wound. It took her a moment to gather that she was back in his room, still recovering from shock as she was.

"Ichigo...," she said her hand coming up to her forehead as she slumped back against his bed, "...what happened?"

"You had what we human's call, a 'panic attack' and combined with that cut you got on your arm, you went into shock, so I carried you back here," he said, as he finished tying the last knot on the bandage around her arm, "What was that all about anyway?"

"Well I...," she said before suddenly she stopped, noticing a sudden change in the area's spiritual pressure. The change was so abrupt that even Ichigo noticed it, and they both paused, trying to let their body catch up with their mind.

"Did you just feel...," said Ichigo.

"Yes...," said Rukia cutting Ichigo off.

"Ok so...the hollow's gone, but I think that..."

"Dante is still there, and still very much alive."

"But that means that..."

"He won...," finished Rukia, her voice sounding grave, as her eyes lost focus causing her to get into a staring contest with Ichigo's wall.

"Ok...," said Ichigo, trying to keep an even head, despite how weird the role reversal felt, "So...what does that mean?"

"Nothing," Rukia said almost immediately, as she rose from his bed, "It doesn't mean anything, or change anything, except now we have to be twice as vigilant around Dante."

At this Ichigo nodded, glad that Rukia was pulling herself together, and yet there was something else left that needed to be addressed.

"Rukia...if it comes down to it, and I need you to be honest with me," Said Ichigo, locking his Auburn eye's with Rukia's violet ones, "Can I beat him?"

"Well I..." she began, hiding her gaze from his as she found herself staring at the ground.

"Can...I...Beat...Him...," said Ichigo again, as he rose from his bed to tower over the shorter girl, lightly grabbing her chin to force her to look him in the eye.

They stood there for awhile, both staring into each other's eyes each trying to find a truth hidden some where deep within.

And then suddenly it stopped, as Rukia with drew from Ichigo in the closet, without so much as a good night. And Ichigo just stood there, frozen where he was, trying to bore holes into the wall through will power alone. He did not know how long he stood there, but eventually sleep called to him, and he was to tried to deny it.

He turned the lights off, and crawled into the bed, a bed that was still warm with Rukia's body heat.

He slept very peacefully that night...

* * *

**A/N: **Alright Show of hand's who thought I died?

Anyone...?

Bah, it's not important, the important thing is I got the next chapter typed up BUNZI...

You'll have to forgive me, it's 12:35 and I'm loopy on coffee at the moment.

My longest chapter yet, and in my own opinion probably my best one as well. But then again my opinion doesn't really matter IT'S YOUR'S.

Which bring's me to my next point...the lack of reviews...

Now I don't want to have to do something drastic like, demand reviews for chapters, because I don't believe that's fair to me to have to do that, and I especially don't think it's fair to you the reader. The last chapter I got two reviews TWO, and I worked really hard on this thing, Come on a little appreciation **is that so much to ask?**

Sorry I know I'm probably whining and stomping my feet over nothing, but how am I supposed to improve myself as a writer without constructive criticism?

Alright, alright I have bored you people enough with my want's and needs, and I'd like to get this up before I have to go to bed tonight so in closing I only have this to say

Read AND **REVIEW!!!**

**Next Time on Bleach The Devil's Cry:**

How does Dante get home?

Can Ichigo take Dante?

Will you ever see Phantom again?

And will I ever shut the heck up and just write the dang chapter already?

The Answer to that, except that last one, and more next time on _**BLEACH: THE DEVILS CRY...**_


	5. Chapter 4: Sweet Dreams

**A/N: **And here we are again, onward down the freshly blazed trail of tears that is my nearly review less story. That's right folks I received a total of TWO reviews for that last chapter. And to that I have the following to say...

That's cold...really cold...

Now I have no idea weather or not it was any good, and my innate paranoia is leaning towards the bad end of the spectrum, which does not bode well for the future of this fic.

Yes there is only one thing now that can appease my horrendously deflated ego...

A cookie to anyone who can guess it...

**!*!*!*REVIEWS*!*!*!**

Really, its rather sad for me that I am forced to use such obnoxious tactics in order to garner a few measly reviews, but come on I write an entire chapter for you people filled with violence and what not, and I only get one review for my trouble?

Where's the love people?

Anyways, the rambling will only grow in size unless the reviews grow in number, until eventually all you people will end up with is entire CHAPTERS of me complaining.

In closing, I hereby confiscate Kidcrud's _**Bronze Star of Reviewing**_ and give it to d'Anima...

That's right I'm fickle too...

* * *

_**Bleach**_

_**The Devils Cry**_

_**Chapter 4: Sweet Dreams are Made of This**_

_**

* * *

  
**_

It was well past midnight when Dante finally made it back home, the wrecked ruin of his bike scraping along the ground behind him, and a look of pissed off discontent burned into his face. The he threw the carcass of his bike into the garage, determined to fix it up later, if nothing else then to spite whatever higher power had decided to end it's young life.

His dark task accomplished, he retreated within his two story loft style apartment, once again silently thanking Uncle Sam for footing the bill for the place as he tossed his singed red trench coat onto the nearby coat rack, alongside his sword Rebellion.

Exhausted from the long day behind him, he crashed on the stained couch in the middle of the room, pushing aside several empty pizza boxes to make room. He lay face down on the couch for awhile, trying to will himself into a state of sleep he knew would not be coming so easily, wearily he sat up and glanced at the clock mounted over his door that read 2:07 a.m. in angry red letters.

Heaving a dejected sigh, he pushed himself into an upright position, and scrounged through the previously discarded pizza boxes, scrounging for some left over morsel to soothe his baying stomach. At last, his search meet with success in the form of an only slightly stale slice of pepperoni in one of the many pizza boxes strewn about the living room. Greedily he devoured the slice, savoring each bite more then the last, before it was gone.

The demon of hunger fought off for the night, Dante glanced at the clock again, which stated the time as 2:18 a.m. in the same simple fashion that it always did.

Sleep called to Dante, and he didn't have the strength or will to fight it. In a zombie like trance the silver haired youth pushed himself to his feet, and stalked to the stairs in the right hand corner of the room, pausing only to pluck his trade mark guns Ebony and Ivory from the coffee table along with an opened half empty bottle of tomato juice.

He had finished the juice off by the time he had made it down the hall to his room, carelessly throwing it over his shoulder to clatter amongst a small pill of equally discarded bottles.

Inside the relative sanctuary of his bedroom, Dante took Ebony and placed it on the night stand to the right of his bed, the very same that held the revolver he had purchased a life time ago, before slumping into the bed, Ivory held tight in his hand nestled underneath the pillow his head lay upon.

Dante always hated this part of the day the most of all, but in a way it was comforting, because no matter how bad a day he had he could always count on his dreams to out do the nightmares of the waking world. Now for some, the dream world was a paradise where all their greatest hopes and fantasies came to life with only their imagination to limit them.

But Dante had long ago lost control over his dreams, ever sense that fateful day so many years ago. He recalled it vividly, despite his best efforts to the contrary, and as his eye's drooped...he could already smell the burnt wood...taste the ash in the air...feel the heat of the flame...and see the blood covering the walls...

* * *

Meanwhile, tucked away in her closet, Ichigo's closet, Rukia Kuchiki stirs in the midst of a fitful sleep. She tosses and turns restlessly, deep in the throes of a stress fueled dream. Perspiration coats her slender frame as her unconscious mind is assaulted with a hail of images, some forgotten memories...others are from a different source altogether...

_She dreams...and in her dreams, she see things, she should not be able to._

_Before her a long forgotten war wages, between darkness and light. She recognizes one side of the fighting with the ease of familiarity, the Gotei 13, arrayed in battle formations against...against...words fail her sleeping mind, a name sits on the edge of her tongue, held fast by a primal fear buried under layers of myth and superstition._

_The battle continues to play out before her, both forces spiraled out chaotically upon and in the sky over a long dead field._

_Abruptly, the blood soaked scene changes, shifting away from the violence, miles away._

_A tower, ominous beyond words, taller then the clouds, looms over her...so high...so impossibly high...fear radiates from the tower, screams form a time long sense past echo eternally in a symphony of terror as the tower seems to move closer to her, growing even larger, and more harrowing with each passing second..._

_Then suddenly the suffocating fear is gone...as is the impossible height of the tower. She stands now in familiar ground, a hall in the Kuchiki manor she realizes. It's cold here, very cold. Her brother stands next to her, his perpetual cold stare focused solely on the cloth mural before them. She recognizes the scene depicted before her, as the battle she witnessed...how long ago was it..._

_Wait...something is difference...a figure lurks in the background of the mural that was not present on the battlefield. She vaguely recognizes it as spider esc in shape...when suddenly the mural itself suddenly envelopes her. Shinigami, Hollow, and monster clash all around her, when suddenly the spider shape appears before her, Phantom. Malicious killing intent can be seen in it's yellow hollow eyes, as it rears back to strike her._

_Instinctively she reaches for her zanpakuto, already knowing she would not find it. Stumbling back away from the hollow before her she looks for her brother, hoping he might be close enough to intervene, but he is no where to be found, having disappeared in the swirling melee of the battle. Her eyes lock upon the Phantom again, only to find something else where it once resided. Red coat...silver hair...Dante..._

_But at the same time not Dante at all, what she thought was a coat is a blood red exoskeleton, what she thought was hair was bone white horns._

_The Dante-thing loomed over Rukia, it's broadsword poised to bisect her from shoulder to waist. Kidou spells came unbidden to her mind, all of which she had no time to cast. Inevitably the sword began it's descent. Rukia shut her eyes...and waited..._

_Her eyes snapped open to the sound of steel on steel and the sight of sparks flying into the night. Interposed between her and the Dante-thing stood none other then Ichigo Kurosaki... and somehow he was Shiba Kaien as well, one minute Ichigo, the other Kaien, and the next a strange combination of the two..._

_Sword locked with the Dante-thing, but still losing ground, Ichigo-Kaien, looked over his shoulder at Rukia...who was frozen where she stood._

"_Rukia..." Ichien said..._

_At this Rukia blink, and suddenly found herself on unsteady ground, as the world around her spun around and around, Shinigami, hollows, and monsters all blurring together..._

"_Rukia..." she heard it again...closer somehow...she was getting closer...darkness overcame her..._

"Oye...Rukia wake up, we're already running late as it is," said Ichigo in an annoyed voice as he banged on his closet door. Rukia shot into an upright position, panting as sweat soaked its way through her stolen pajamas.

"Come on, everyone else already left...we need to GO ALREADY," said Ichigo, his voice becoming more frustrated even as he continued pounding upon her closet door. Normally he would have just headed to class already and left her to herself,

but after last night, he didn't feel particularly comfortable with Rukia out of his sight.

Rukia lay their breathing in gasps her mind working frantically to catch up, even as the fragmented memories of her dream swiftly shifted deep into her subconscious. She clung to the images desperately, sensing a strange message of foreboding layered within them, but her efforts at retaining damn near anything were stifled by Ichigo's INCESSANT KNOCKING ON HER DOOR!!!

Ichigo was caught completely off guard when the closet door suddenly swung open will he was in between fist blows to it...he was even more caught off guard when a petite and very bare foot suddenly collided with his fore head, sending him flying back to land roughly against the side of his bed.

"I'M UP ALREADY!!!" shouted Rukia, attempting to murder Ichigo with her eyes even he lay spiraled out against the side of his bed trying to figure out what the hell just happened. Swiftly she slammed the closet door shut with an annoyed and audible "hmpf."

Ichigo was still too dumbfounded by the sudden blow to his forehead to be irritated with the midget that was currently changing in HIS closet, and so he simply lay where he landed on the floor alongside his bed, and waited for her to get ready.

'_Well_,' he thought, when he had the presence of mind to do so, _'...at least she didn't kick me in the shin this time...'_

* * *

Dante arrived at school only slightly later then he had yesterday, truth be told the motorcycle was not really needed for transportation purposes, but the fact that he made a less badass entrance had put Dante in something of an annoyed mood. The fact that he had no place to stash his weapons, or more importantly his favored red trench coat, was not helping matters at all.

He wandered the school halls with his book bag slung over his shoulder in a causal manner, trying to walk his troubles off rarely worked, but it wasn't like he had anything better too do. His eyes glaring holes in his shoes as he sullenly walked through the school, most of the students being smart enough to steer clear of the silver haired foreigner.

The key word being 'most'...

He had about half a second where all he could see was long orange hair, when a most definitely female shaped body collided with him violently. The hit barely registered on Dante's frame, but it sent the girl reeling back peddling with a look of pain distorting her otherwise pretty face.

Instinctively Dante reached the hand not holding his bad out and grabbed her by the shoulders, steadying her swaying frame and preventing her descent.

"Woh, slow down babe," said Dante, the words flowing easily from confident lips even as a comfortable half smile lit up his face.

"Oh...I'm so sorry...I didn't mean too," stammered Orihime as she smiled politely, choosing to tactfully ignore Dante's rather crass words.

Unfortunately her friend was rather less then tactful in regards to those things.

"Don't apologize Orihime it's not your fault this guy wasn't looking where he was going," said Tatsukias she moved up to support her friend, her eyes trying to convey a message of pain in Dante's direction "What's the matter with you stupid, running over someone like that only to hit on them 5 seconds after words, don't they teach you manners in America?"

"You know what your right," said Dante, his smile growing, his bad mood ruined as a mischievous light glowed within his steel blue eyes, "I'll rectify that to the both of you, how about a three session of make up sex?"

And suddenly everybody in halls froze, eyes wide with terror and fear, as all eyes turned upon Dante with the same thought in each mind.

'_He's a dead man...'_

"What do you say," continued Dante, consciously oblivious of the looks of horror plastered across the face of every student in ear shot, "Your place or mine?"

Silence was the only response, as scared eyes turned expectantly to **Tatsuki, whose eyes were hidden in the shadow of her bangs...**

When suddenly in a small voice Orihime spoke up...in an attempt to defuse the situation even as it spiraled rapidly out of control, "I don't think that will be..."

She never got to finish her sentence as Tatsuki suddenly spoke of, the sound of her voice alone enough to send the students closest to her stumbling backwards desperate to be out of range when she finally exploded.

"WHAT did you say?"

By now some of the students had lost their nerve and had fled the scene silently screaming for their mothers, even as the rest of them subconsciously took several steeps back away from the scene.

"I said..." Dante began, and then Tatsuki's fist shot out faster then the human eye could follow with enough force to reduce bone to so many pieces of dust...

Or so it would have if Dante's hand hadn't captured the fist but a scant few inches away from his face.

Stunned and shocked silence fell deafeningly across the hall, as students bore witness to the impossible...someone who Tatsuki Arisawa had failed to hit...

"Well that was rude...and here I was trying to do you girls a favor," said Dante, the ever present smile still spread across his face even as Tatsuki snapped out of her brief moment of shock, as bloody bloody daggers formed in her eyes even as her other fist shot forward with ever intent of wiping off that smug grin off Dante's face...and probably all the way out of town if her hit connected.

Which of course it did not, as Dante leaned oh so easily to the left and out of the way of the offending fist. His grin only growing for all of Tatsuki's troubles.

"Oh a get it," Dante said in a false show of recognition, even as he dropped his bag off to the side in preparation for what was to come, "Your one of THOSE kinds of girls...my brother warned me about girls like you...I was always hoping he was just screwing with me."

And then suddenly Tatsuki was moving, breaking her right hand free of Dante's as she effortlessly flowed into a series of blows that would stricken a normal man blind, deaf, and dumb...you know...only for a FEW days...

But Dante dodged and or blocked each and every blow with just as little effort, dancing about his opponent with a flourish of flamboyant and unnecessary movement.

All the while Orihime tried desperately to coax the two out of the fight her eyes fearfully following the action even as her mind raced towards a means to stop them both before someone, Dante she had no doubt, got hurt.

They circled the clearing the students had provided them, Dante weaving in and out of Tatsuki's attacks, even as the girl began to wear her self out in a fruitless attempt to DESTROY THAT ARROGANT BASTARD...

By the time they had returned to their starting position Tatsuki was coated in sweat with her breath coming out in ragged angry gasps, even as Dante looked ready to start round two...

"My turn?" Dante asked, even as Tatsuki's eyes widened, which Dante took as a yes.

Making a spectacle of himself, Dante assumed a stance one would normally associate with a salsa dance, with one hand parallel to the ground in pointed in Tatsuki's direction his index finger raised high counting off the number one.

"FIRST," he shouted, as he suddenly shot towards the startled Tatsuki who had just enough time to assume a defensive stance before Dante was upon her, "I WHIP IT OUT."

"THEN I THRUST IT," Dante's right fist rushed forward, just slow enough for Tatsuki to dodge to the left even in her exhausted state.

"WITH..."

"...GREAT..."

"...FORCE."

Dante said, punctuating each word with another punch, slowly cornering Tatsuki against the lockers to their left.

"EVERY ANGLE," he said, as his leg swept out and over Tatsuki as she dodged underneath it...

"IT PENETRATES."

...only to be caught off guard in the back swipe of the leg, and sent spiraling back into Dante's arms.

"UNTIL..." said Dante as she spun the caught off guard Tatsuki back into the locker...

"WITH GREAT STRENGHT" he said, as his arms flew out to intercept Tatsuki's desperate counter attack.

"I RAM IT IN"

His fist went forward faster then any attack before, on an intercept course with Tatsuki's face. Instinctively she shut her eyes, waiting for the jarring force of the impact...

And waited...

And waited...

And then suddenly tried of waiting she opened her eyes...to the sight of a red rose held barely a centimeter away from her face...

Mouth agape with shock, she could do nothing as Dante slid the rose into her open mouth, and then manually closed it with his other hand.

"IN THE END" he said, as he spun around and bowed to the gathered audience...

"WE'RE ALL SATISFIED," he finished, straightening out to see the reaction on the likely stunned student body...

What he found was Ichigo...

Ichigo did not look satisfied at all...

Without warning Ichigo's fist darted forward, connect solidly with Dante's jaw and sending him stumbling back only to regain his feet a few inches away.

"That's ENOUGH..." Ichigo growled through gritted teeth, his fist clenching and unclenching successfully cracking each and every single one of his knuckles.

Dante straightened out and turned to fix a sidelong glance on Ichigo, his blue eyes swirling unnaturally with the first tell tale signs of red starting to clash obviously with the still slightly present blue.

A miniscule amount of blood dripped off the edge of his lips...

The students felt the tension rising in the air, so thick you COULDN'T cut it with a knife, even as they began desperately wondering when a teacher would show up to end all this madness, unable to know that the faculty had probably chosen the worse time EVER to have a staff meeting...

And then suddenly...it stopped...as a small half grin formed on Dante's face, even as he wiped the blood on his lips away.

He chuckled as if in on some secret joke that was his and his alone...even as he began pacing slowly back and forth in front of Ichigo.

"Well this is hardly fair...can't we reschedule this or something?" Dante said, as he raised his arms in a questioning manner.

"You've got a jacked up notion of fair play pal...and it's beginning to piss me off...," growled Ichigo, not showing the tiniest sign of backing down...

"Aw come on..." said Dante, coming to a stop and angling back towards Ichigo, his hand coming up to rub the sweat out of his eyes, "...a little fight every now and again makes life more interesting..."

His hand moved away from his eyes....the swirling colors of Hell were reveled, and suddenly the killing intent was back making the air so heavy that it felt like breathing molasses...

"...don't you think?" said Dante solemnly, the threat of death hanging on his tongue but never actually leaving his mouth...

Ichigo said nothing to this...staring Dante down, refusing to be kowtowed again...even as Orihime, who had been standing there the entire time, suddenly found it very hard to breathe...

And then the sharp crisp noise of the bell shattered the atmosphere like oh so much glass...breaking the state of hypnosis that had held the students captive for so long. Reveling just how small their attention span was, most of them instantly forgot about what they were witnessing, instead realizing that they had class in less then 5 minutes and they STILL hadn't gone to their lockers.

Ichigo tried desperately not to loose sight of Dante, but it was pointless in the ensuing rush of students, as Dante stood exactly where he was for a moment, and then disappeared in a mass of faces...

Another reckoning had been averted...but how much longer until the inevitable happened...

Or more importantly...would Ichigo be able to protect his friends when it came down to it...

He was scarred to find that he didn't have an answer to that question...involuntarily he shuddered, realizing he might not be strong enough to defend himself...

And then Rukia was at he side, having been avoiding him for most of the morning.

"Come on...we're gonna be late..." she said in an eerie echo of what he had been screaming at her earlier this very morning...suddenly, Ichigo felt the dread lifting off his shoulders...

'_Soon...it'll be soon...and when it does happen,'_ he thought casting a sidelong glance as Rukia as they made their way to class, _'like Hell will I let him beat me...'_

If he only knew how those words were about to be thrown in his face...

'Like Hell...'

* * *

**A/N: **Ok NOW how many people thought I died?

And now keep your hands up if you actually cared...

Wow not that many of you out there...

Now I could throw a how bunch of reasons WHY it took so long to get this chapter out...like my steadily declining grades...my overworking underpaying job...or the vast and varied injuries and or illnesses I've collected over the months...

But truth be told the killing factor here was writers block and moderate to severe procrastination.

Luckily I got over it...and all it took was a nearly lethal dose of caffeine...

That aside...I think I've come up with a neat way to make reviewing more...interesting for you the reader...

Now you may or may not have noticed, but I have gingerly spread quotes and comments from several Devil May Cry games throughout every chapter of this tale...

Originally I was going to do it, just as a subtle nod towards the fans of the series that make stumble across them...but I think I've found a much more creative means of utilizing them...

We're going to play a game my readers...and the winner gets a very special prize indeed...

From now until the next chapter is posted...how so ever can go back through the story, and find the most quotes from Devil May Cry, wins the prize...which will be reveled in the next update.

5 points go to acknowledging the quote

+1 points for naming which game the quote is from

+2 points for participating

+3 points for reviewing AND acknowledging the points

He with the most points wins the super special surprise prize, but everyone who tries will be acknowledged in the closing author's note of the next chapter...

And it'll be in big bold letters too...now this pansy tiny letters...

Now unless I'm forgetting anything I bid you all a fond fair well good readers, and until next time...and as always _**READ AND REVIEW**_...


	6. Chapter 5: Tonight You Die

**A/N:** And once more into the breach my friends, belated as usual...but this time I have an excuse in the form of my own day of birth, and my mother's marriage...and I still found time to write this...how about that

Too late do I realize this but, it has come to my attention that I answered 0 of the questions asked at the end of Chapter 3, despite the 'find out next time' tag right below that…oh well…no one seemed to notice anyways…I guess I'll just take a moment to feel deep heart stopping shame, take another caffeine tablet, and then move on.

The contest panned out a little too well, making it a pain in my ass to actually hunt down all the people that participated but, because I love you guys (and I use the word loosely) I actually went ahead and found all the names.

That being said I completely disregarded the whole point thing, admittedly not one of my better ideas, but I'm willing to look past that if you guys are. Which you will be if you want more story...

Anyways thanks are in order to the following for acknowledging there was a contest in order from when they posted, the winner having his name in bold for most quotes recognized.

* * *

SplitToInfinity (Who is the favorite at this point in time...that's right...I pointed it out)

d'Anima

**Drane10**

Rhiniel(although they didn't so much play along as…complain…)

Damien The Prince of Darkness

iamalex117

Alastor90(If you really must know I'm portraying a mixture of the Dante from DMC3, the Manga based on that game, and a bit of my own personal touch to hopefully flesh out Dante's human side)

Heronkai

Cross177

ninjaeris13

The Black Inferno Devil

***inserts fireworks here***

* * *

At any rate congratulations to Drane10, look for your prize in the closing author's notes, hopefully when I get around to writing those I'll be able to think of what the prize actually is.

And also to show my appreciation for an extraordinarily long review written by Alastor90 (longest review written thus far) I hereby award him the **Obsidian Star of Reviewing**...

Which is to say I've run out of actual awards and now I'm just making this crap up in a rather pathetic attempt to show how thankful I am...

What...don't look at me like that...bah ON WITH THE STORY!!!

((P.S. Engelmohr2004 the story is set in the introduction arc, so no hollow powers for Ichigo...yet...))

* * *

_**Bleach**_

_**The Devils Cry**_

_**Chapter 5: Drink and be Merry for Tonight you Die!!!**_

* * *

Back in the class room, Ichigo sat at his desk and tried very hard to ignore the silver haired bastard that sat in the back of the room. This morning's excitement had him wound up so tight that he could practically HEAR the thin thread of his sanity twanging as it was pulled to its very limits on the verge of just snapping like so much dry wood.

In a vain effort he threw himself into the teacher's lecture, hanging on his every word, processing every syllable, even going so far as to actually TAKE NOTES!!!

But eventually his wondering eye and lack of focus got the better of him, and he found himself idle casting his glance about the class room, driven by agitated boredom and what he mistakenly took for instinct.

From the teacher to the right his eyes made a trail all the way to the front row furthest desk on the right his where his eyes briefly caught on a dark haired bespectacled youth of a pale complexion who had a length of bandaged wrapped around his forehead from some. The student was currently as engrossed in the teacher's lesson as Ichigo was pretending to be earlier. He tried to place a name to his face, scowling at the youth in some sort of instinctive disdain before once again growing bored and agitated, roaming the room further with his glaring eyes.

Next stop, Arisawa Tatsuki, who was currently shifting between muttering angrily through clenched teeth, and sending withering, baneful glares in the general direction of a certain silver haired foreign exchange student. Ichigo spared her a longer glance then the last, not entirely sure why the first student caught his eye in the first place. It could have been the poor lighting, but if Ichigo squinted just right, he would have sworn that he could pick out the faintest tell tale signs of redness around Tatsuki's cheeks.

'_Must be coming down with a fever,'_ he thought, before dismissing the matter entirely and moving on, not noticing the rose Dante had given her earlier nestled rather snuggly in a side pocket of Tatsuki's backpack.

His eyes stopped again just behind where Tatsuki sat, falling upon another student whose name he could not quite recall....

'_Inoue,' _he remembered after a minute or so of recollection, mental snapping his fingers at the deduction. He took a moment to take in her long hair, an odd shade of auburn that marked her off from the rest of the student, save for him. He spent another half second looking at her before he lost interest and moved on, not noticing Orihime glancing at him out of the corner of her eye the whole time he had been looking at her.

The rest of the faces blurred together as he had already seen them hundreds of times...

Some people he didn't know...

Kiego...

Mizuiro...

Several more people he didn't know...

Good old Chad...

And...

He stopped cold and quickly shifted his attention foreword again, his eyes very nearly catching the very person he had been trying to forgot the entire time. His plan had worked too well, nearly resulting in disaster.

He wasn't sure if he could take looking into those eyes again without...doing something that he was sure would make Rukia even more of a pain in his ass then usual...

It was funny, but as his thoughts turned to Rukia, he found himself physically turning to look at her, like some kind of trigger.

He looked at her the longest, which was strange considering he had barely met her a few weeks ago, and yet...he felt...attached to her some how...like something he read in all the Shakespearian plays he liked so much...he felt...he felt...

He felt the wad of paper impact the side of his face shattering his concentration like a pane of glass. For a second all he could do was blink in a dumbfounded manner...

Then the anger set in...

ALOT of anger...

He spent about half a second wondering who threw the ball before throwing a glare that could have easily burnt a portion of the school to the ground. There sat Dante, smiling sardonically like the little bastard that he was, send a polite wave hello in Ichigo's direction, as he leaned back into his seat.

There was a moment where all Ichigo could think about was all the terrible HORRIBLE things he would have done to wipe that smile off of Dante's face...

"Ichigo...would you kindly SIT DOWN...," the teacher spoke up suddenly, snapping Ichigo back to the wider world, he sat down abruptly, half the class chuckling under their breath, the other half catching the look of murder in Ichigo's eyes wisely chose to ignore the matter altogether.

"Thank you Mr. Kurosaki, now if you need to go to the bathroom, next time just raise you hand like the rest of the class hmm."

Ichigo said nothing, but nodded his consent to the teacher, his scowl tempered somewhat by embarrassment. As the teacher went back to his lecture on history, or math, or whatever, Ichigo slunk further into his seat simmering in his own anger.

"Pppppiiiiisssst," came a sound from the back of the class, barely above a whisper, which Ichigo choose to ignore even as a vein of anger began to appear on his forehead.

"Hey...the guy with the suspiciously flaming hair...," came the voice again, somewhat louder, catching both the teacher's and Ichigo's attention.

Turning in his chair to see what his nemesis wanted, Ichigo turned to find Dante leaning foreword in his chair, sending a mindful eye towards the teachter as he motioned towards the wad of paper that lay forgotten on the floor next to Ichigo's desk.

_Read it _Dante mouthed to Ichigo, who sent a dumbfounded look back and a mouthed _What _in response.

Rolling his eyes in annoyance Dante reiterated at a loud whisper this time, "Read it."

Not quite understanding what Dante meant, and partially to just aggravate him further Ichigo once again replied at a whisper, "What?"

Fed up with the boy now, shaking his head in annoyance and profane disbelief in just how idiotic the kid before him could be Dante through caution into the wind his mouth bypassing his brain to act...

"READ IT YOU STUPID SONNVA..."

"MR. DANTE..."

There was a brief paused where not a single noise was made as shocked settled its way through the classroom. Giving Dante just enough time to recover...

"Excuse me," he said, in a totally lame but better then nothing, attempt to cover his tracks, "I meant, 'read it louder'...I can't quite hear what your saying all the way back here teach..."

"Yes well, hearing me would be a lot easier if you would simply stay awake during the course of my lectures."

"Frankly teach, you'd have to be female and A LOT more attractive for that to happen..."

Fortunately for Dante, the teacher was wide eye with shock just long enough for the bell to ring and save his ass from a massive chewing.

As the student's filed out of the room for lunch, Ichigo found himself walking next to Rukia on the way to the roof.

"So what do you think he meant by, 'read it'," he said to her in honest befuddlement.

In response Rukia held up the wad of paper Dante had thrown against Ichigo's face, sending a look in Ichigo's direction that said several unkind things in regards to his intelligence. Even then it took Ichigo several seconds for him to connect the dots in his mind.

"Well....," he said, as a victorious 'I'm so superior to you in everyway ha' smile spread across Rukia's face, "...I would have...it's not that big a...SHUT UP RUKIA."

She was still smiling when they reached the roof and went their separate ways.

* * *

"So what does that note that Dante guy threw at you say?" said Keigo after Ichigo got finished greeting him as he usually did with closed fists.

"How did you know it was a note so fast," inquired Ichigo.

"Oh come on Ichigo, you'd have to be some kind of dense blithering idiot not to figAHHH," said Keigo right before Ichigo's fist cut him off, "WHAT DID I DO THAT TIME?"

"What does it say Ichigo," said Chad, politely shifting the subject back to the more important matter.

Regaining his focus Ichigo turned his attention back to the wadded up piece of paper, even as his friends all subconscious crowded around him to read what exactly it said.

Carefully he unwound the paper ball until it lay flat, if somewhat crinkled on the ground.

"Well that's anti climatic...it's just a blank piece of paper...," said Kiego right before Ichigo slapped him upside the head again.

"The writing is on the other side moron," said Ichigo in a tense annoyed manner, as he flipped the paper over onto the ground.

In a lazy scrawl kind of hand writing it said the following...

_**...You Die at Midnight...**_

The group sat where they were staring holes into the paper, not a one of them daring to say a thing. Finally it was Mizuiro that said what the rest of them were thinking.

"So...," he began, still staring at the note in a befuddled manner, "Any of you know how to read English?"

The collection of ashamed sighs and downcast heads was the only answer he needed to hear.

* * *

It took Ichigo the rest of lunch period...and a small amount of time after school...to fully decode the message Dante sent him. In the end the closest thing he could get was, you expire at the 12 hour of the night...which he could only assume meant midnight.

'_Man why can't the rest of the world just learn to speak and write in plain Japanese,'_ Ichigo thought sullenly as he walked home from school. Rukia had decided that they would put off following Dante again tonight, considering the debacle that happened last night. Ichigo's mind, however, never wondered far from the ultimatum Dante had given him, _'...Midnight...'_

"Ichigo…"

He heard Rukia call his name to his right, but it felt so far away he might as well not have heard it at all.

"…Ichigo…"

Sure he had been in plenty of dangerous situations before, even excluding hollow attacks he knew his way around in a fight, but he had never REALLY had time to think about it as he did now. Ichigo wouldn't say he was afriad, but he sure as hell wasn't too excited about it ethier.

"ICHIGO," shouted Rukia, puncuating her sentence with a slap upside Ichigo's head.

Ichigo took a few moments to look bewildered before giving Rukia a VERY irritated look.

"WHAT?" he shouted back just as loud.

"You looked troubled," Rukia said, causally shrugging off his glare, "I was just curious as to what you were thinking about…"

'_So you show your curiosity by slapping me upside the head,' _thought Ichigo as a vein throbbed in his forehead. He opened his mouth to retort, when suddenly his brain went into overdrive, replaying their conversation the night before, and the exact wording of the message Dante had sent him.

"…I wasn't thinking about anything," Ichigo eventually said, eyes focused forward least they betray his lie.

"While that's hardly surprising considering you," Rukia said, causing Ichigo's anger vein to momentarily swell, "…I don't believe you…whenever your ready to tell me thought just let me know."

"Whatever…" Ichigo said in response, eyes moving forward as the pair continued on their trek back home. They didn't say anything else the rest of the way.

* * *

Dante was out of his seat and on his way home about 3 minutes before the dismissal bell actually rang/. He was off the campus about 2 minutes after the bell rang, and half way home by the time everyone else had managed to clear the building.

He found his loft, as cool and empty as always, empty pizza boxes littering the floor, his crusty old couch squared off against his crappy old TV on the right, his dusty old pool table off to the left, and his desk set right in between the two and to the rear with a mini fridge for his bottles of tomato juice.

"Home Sweet Home," Dante said aloud to the empty room, echoing the crooked and battered sign that hung above the steel doorway.

He didn't stay long, making his way through the fine layer of trash that coated his floors to the stairs on the right hand side of the room. Up the stairs now, he moved down the hall way to his room, retrieving his guns, and sword from his closet. Quickly changing into his would be trademark red trench coat, he slipped out of his room and made his way out of the loft.

He locked the door on his way out and started off to where he was going to fight Ichigo.

He realized about 5 minutes after he started walking that he never specified an actual place for the fight to occur. It was mildly annoying and a little inconvenient, but Dante had a feeling that one way or another, come mid night, they'd find each other.

"What did that guy say in that movie trailer," thought Dante aloud to himself, as he walked off in a random direction, his mind naturally find a quote badass enough to set the mood for the coming event, "'Oh yes, there will be blood…'"

* * *

While Dante was walking about town thinking of cool things to say when he and his opponent finally met, probably scaring the daylights out of people with his sword in the process, Ichigo found himself helping his younger sister Yuzu out around the house.

More specifically the laundry…

Which was probably a good thing, given that Yuzu probably would have had a stroke when Kon jumped out of the dryer the second it was opened. Ichigo, for his credit, merely jumped back in shock and uttered a very short 'DAH' and the possessed lion doll randomly jumped out of the pile of Yellow's (**A/N:** not sure if this is actually how you sort laundry, but I'm a bachelor and am thus not entitled to know) screaming and gasping for air that his cotton lungs didn't need.

They both stood where they had landed, one relieved to finally be free after two days of imprisonment, the other curious, annoyed, and not a little bit pissed at the mod soul's disturbing appearance.

"KON…," Ichigo 'shouted' under his breath, mindful that he was not alone in his home, "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING IN MY DRYER?"

"…A DRYER…," Kon 'shouted' back, his voice involuntarily low in a subconscious mockery of Ichigo's, "IS THAT WHAT YOU CALL THAT TORTURE DEVICE...I WAS TRAPPED IN THAT THING FOR **THREE **DAYS!?!"

'Well that explains why it's been so quiet around here,' Ichigo thought, as he glared in annoyance at Kon, who glared right on back in a great show of bravado.

It was right about then that Ichigo figured out how to get out of the house without anyone asking questions.

"Kon…," he said, his voice low and serious, "I've got a job that only you can do."

At the sound of Ichigo's voice, Kon instantly snapped out of his 'need to breath' mindset, pushing his plushy body into a standing position to match Ichigo's serious gaze with a serious, if somewhat comical due to the fact that his eyes were glass button's, gaze of his own.

"What kind of Job…," Kon said curiosity and the look of honest need in Ichigo's eye's compelling him to reply.

At this Ichigo smiled, and began to explain…

* * *

It was dark in Karakura this close to midnight, but then again it was dark in most places this close to midnight. The people had stopped appearing on the side walk around 10ish, and the cars had stopped passing about an hour later. The town was incredibly quiet, save for the storm clouds that had started to brew around 8, and threatened to rain sense 9.

Dante had eventually found himself a nice stoop to loiter on while he waited for the party to start. The building behind him was old, decrepit, and obviously deserted. Not 'exactly' what Dante had in mind, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

Fat wet drops of rain began probing the ground as his watch struck 12 midnight on the dot. Thunder cracked over head as the storm clouds finally broke and spent their payload on the town below.

Dante was on his feet now, casting his eyes down the street to the left, then to the right, and then back towards the left. It took 2 minutes, but the flash of lightening reveled the oranged haired head of Kurosaki Ichigo, a massive sword nearly as tall as him strapped to his back over his right shoulder, and a look of pissed off defiance plastered across his face.

"Well, well, well…you showed up…I'm proud of you kid…this was the last place I expected to find anyone with some guts," Dante said grinning, turning to square off against Ichigo, his steel blue eye's already beginning to swirl, the faintest traces of red glowing visibly in the gloom, "Nice outfit by the way…a couple hundred years out of date sure, but I suppose it works if you're going for that whole retro look thing."

"Your one to talked," Ichigo bit back, his lips turning into a sort of feral half grin as his hands found the handle of his sword, "Did your mother dress you, or were you trying to look like a flaming homosexual?"

At this Dante dropped the pretense of his grin, his eyes now fully crimson, hell colored now, his teeth grating against each other as he spoke, "Kid…you REALLY shouldn't have said that…"

"Talk, talk, talk," Ichigo said again, as his massive sword slid free of the sheath on his back and found itself in an aggressive posture facing Dante.

At this Dante's grin returned, as he began pacing slowly back in forth before Ichigo, chuckling a dark little chuckle.

"I can already tell," he said, mid way through his second walk around, "…this is gonna be ONE HELL OF A PARTY!!!"

And suddenly he was moving, his sword out in a blur, his feet launching himself toward Ichigo faster than the human eye could follow. Sparks flew, steel clashed, all the while rain fell and thunder crashed overhead.

* * *

**A/N: **Alright another late night (current time 3:00 A.M.) cramming session pays off, and my loyal fans have another chapter to enjoy whilst I take yet another month to neglect this story, only to write up the next chapter all crammed together at once in a single sleepless night…

Yep…life is good…

Which reminds me, it's time to announce Drane10's prize…

Congradulations Mr. 10, you're the proud recipient of this…

The _**'Oh boy I get to stick an original character of my own design into this one guy's story AWESOME!!!' **_prize.

Some assembly is required, and no there is no manual. That being said, if the prize isn't to your liking you have the following options to consider.

Pass the prize along to someone of your choice, whom you think would really take advantage of it.

Opt out of the prize altogether and pick the alternative prize, note that you would need to wait another week for me to think up ANOTHER prize…or

Take a salt tablet and get the f*** over it…

And once again congratulations Drane my fan, may I call you my fan, I'm sure you'll be very happy with this prize I worked very hard on figuring out.

And with that my caffeine pill runs it's natural course and I'm probably gonna spend the next hour or so puking up sections of my small intestines in the bathroom. Damn side effects…

Thusly I bid you all a good day and a READ AND **REVIEW!!!**


	7. Chapter 6: Clash Ichigo vs Dante

**A/N: **Well here we are again my readers, except this time the chapter is even MORE belated than usual, see normally I try to get at least one chapter in a month, but I neglected to do that last month due to the fact that frankly I forgot that I hadn't already done so. Which is rather pathetic when you think about it but I'm willing to over look that if you folks are. Another anomaly here is the fact that the sun is still up as I type this which is odd sense, as those of you who actually read the **A/N** know, I usually do my typing in the dead of night powered by caffeine.

But that's not important, what is important is the fact that is your guys reviews, and which I'm happy to say, have picked up recently, apparently the last chapter was quite the hit among you people, well it's safe to say, and actually fairly accurate as well, that you haven't seen anything yet…cryptic smile and fade out…

* * *

Review response time, ok lets see what we got…

**Oyaji Murakmi: ***Rises eyebrow slightly as he tries to worm his way out of his grasp* ok ok…just calm down…and let me go…I don't want to have to go throw the litigation involved with getting ANOTHER restraining order…

**: **See above paragraph last sentence.

**Kokiiru-kun:** Nelo Angelo will not be making an appearance, seeing DMC-wsie this story takes place slightly pre DMC3. However, don't be surprised if a Nelo Angelo esc enemy were to rear his ugly head at some point in the near/far future.

**PleiadesWolfe: **All in good time my reader, all in good time…

**HolyKnight5: **Actually it was 2000 years ago there buddy, but I'm willing to write that up to a typo. And while you are on an interesting track with both their mother's being linked, it's really feasibly impossible for them to be responsible for Sparada's rebellion given the fact that neither of them were alive during that period.

Alright then I think that covers the major ones, thanks to all for your support and reviews, and with that I give you the next chapter of _**Bleach: The Devils Cry…**_

* * *

_**Bleach**_

_**The Devils Cry**_

_**Chapter 6: Clash of Entwined Fates**_

* * *

Rain fell on Karakura in drizzles at first, while thunder cracked hailing the downpour that was to come. The wind, however, remained oddly come with only the moderate gust picking up before rapidly dying off as if the air was right where it needed to be, watching…waiting…

Even as the imposingly black storm clouds churned overhead, and the silent whispers of the wind spun about the city, some things endured the foul weather, with intentions darker than any storm cloud could ever be. The thugs lurking on the outskirts of town were prime examples of this. The five of them trouncing about in the rain, each one a born and breed gang member, raised on the street with a bag full of cocaine in one pocket and a loaded 9mm in the other. Yakuza they might not be, but they were still predators stalking their hunting grounds, at least in their own minds they were.

On a night like this, however, sometimes man just wasn't on the top of the food chain anymore.

Perched on their stoop they caught sight of him, a solitary figure walking alone down the unlit alleyway, warped in a distractingly blue trench coat and seemingly unmindful of the now pouring rain. A katana was held firmly in his left hand, and damp silver hair obscured his eyes from view.

Three things about him made this stranger a target for the young gang of hoodlums. The first, his clothes they screamed money, and the leader had an eye for leather coats. The second, his sword would make a great trophy and if nothing else it would fetch a great price at a pawn shop. But the thing that really broke the camel's back here was his hair…his silver hair…it screamed attitude, and they definitely had a problem with that.

The leader smiled cruelly as he motioned his boys forward, already relishing the thrill of the hunt, and the soon to come kill.

His men moved quickly, encircling the man their hands gripping their weapons and their faces turned into vicious smiles and sneers. The stranger, for his part, acknowledged them simply by stopping in his walk, not even bothering to look up at them, as he found his path impeded by the hulking form of the gang's leader.

"Well well well," spoke the leader a smug grin plastered all over his face, "What do we got here boys? Looks like this one got separated from the rest of the tour group."

At a short snorting toadie laugh ripped outwards amongst the gang before swiftly falling silent. The man said nothing, his eyes still obscured by the silver bangs, and his stance unchanged.

"Nice sword ya got there bub, check it out boys, loser thinks the hunk of tin he bought at the souvenir stand makes him a samurai."

Another laugh from the hoods, and silence still from the man. At this the leader began to lose patience, the dude should have been begging them not to kill him by now, and his insolence was really starting to piss him off.

"Listen up you fruit," he said between gritted teeth, jabbing his finger into the man shoulder to drive his point home, "This here is OUR territory. You fond of breathin you pay the toll!"

There was no laughter from the surrounding boys, only a narrowing of the eyes and a widening of their smiles, it was almost time to make the kill. Slowly now, the man moved, chalking his head back up to regard the gang leader, a single eye visible from in between his damp bangs. His eye traveled from left to right, slowly predatorily, not sizing them up…no…

He was counting them…

In the dim light, with the rain and the unfocused rage blinding him, even at this range, the leader failed to see the red shades of hell swirling about in the man's eyes. A flash of lightening reveled them, for a split second.

In that small fraction of an instant only one of them saw the horrible red in the man's eyes. Fear gripped him turning the rain running down his back into ice cubes and the bottom of his stomach into a hollow pit. Instinct told him to run and run NOW…

"Boss…," he spoke hesitantly never taking his fear filled eyes off the man as he continued couting, swiveling his head slightly to catch the ones behind him, "I think maybe we should…"

"That sword'll do," the leader spoke, cutting off his subordinate, as he reached forward for the handle of the stranger's blade, "We wont kill ya…maybe...we just cut ya up a bi…"

He never got to finish his sentence, nor did he register the flash of silver. He was distracted by the sight of his outstretched hand…sans four fingers and a thumb. No one had time to react as another flash of silver sliced out from the stranger, suddenly body parts began to hit the ground, seemingly at random.

Fingers fell first…then hands…then arms…legs separated themselves at the ankles, knees, and hips…

The gang leader manged a single word as he watched his men seemingly fall apart around him, even as his own head separated into three roughly similar parts.

"…huh…?" he said in a small shocked voice as the pieces of his head fell back detached from his neck to land in a rapidly growing pool of red blood. He had the chance to see his own body collapse on the remains of his head a few seconds before he realized he was dead…

The man took a moment to take stock of the assortment of body parts he had created as he calmly twirled his blade to remove excess blood before casually returning the sword to it's sheath and stepping over the rapidly cooling remains.

"What a disgusting breed of vermin my brother has chosen to surround himself with," he spoke at last, in an icy cold inhuman voice. He said nothing else of the matter, putting the entire thing out of his mind effectively forgetting the whole encounter even as the stench of blood wafted up the alley way to greet…

The rain picked up, and lightening flashed as the stranger departed the alley of death.

* * *

Sparks flew as Dante's sword collided with Ichigo's solidly, sending the young substitute shinigami sliding backwards along the slick rain soaked pavement. Ichigo took a second to regain his footing, before charging back at Dante, fire burning in his amber eyes, as he lanced out at Dante's legs.

Dante leaped over the strike, launching himself into the air to land on a nearby street light, even as Ichigo matched his movement, landing on the light fixture as Dante stood solidly atop the pole. A furious barrage of attacks was launched Dante's way as Ichigo struggled to maintain balance while at the same time trying to land a solid hit on Dante, who countered with an equal amount of well timed parries.

A surprise kick from Dante caught Ichigo off guard, nearly knocking him off the street light, buying Dante just enough time to slice through the thin metal limb supporting Ichigo's weight.

Ichigo for his part, recovered quickly angling the fall back to kick the chopped off limb at Dane even as he fell to the street.

But Dante was already gone, leaping high into the sky angling for a roof top across the street. Ichigo landed on his feet on the street below, swiftly jumping into the air intercepting Dante mid leap. He rammed his shoulder into Dante, knocking him off course into the path of a building to the right of the one he was aiming for.

Dante grunted in pain as they both rammed into the building, creating a hair line crack in the wall even as they both collapsed onto a wide ledge just beneath them. Dante was the first to get up, throwing Ichigo back further down the ledge, as he got into an upright position.

Ichigo flipped throw the air landing on his back, with one arm dangling off the edge of the ledge. He pushed himself to his feet to square off against Dante. An instant later they were charging at each other Ichigo brining his sword down as Dante brought his sword up. The metal rang as the pair struggled to over the power each other before mutually breaking off into another series of attacks and counter attacks.

Again Dante caught Ichigo off guard, driving his knee deep into Ichigo's gut before sending him stumbling back with a fierce left hook. Ichigo fumbled about, dazed from the impact and struggling to regain his senses as Dante lined him up for another blow. The equivalent of a truck slammed into Ichigo's mid section as Dante struck him with a powerful road house that slammed Ichigo THROUGH the wall of the old abandoned building, and into the bare seventh floor.

Ichigo got to his feet despite the ringing in his ears, and blurred vision, to focus his full blown pissed off scowl on the vaguely defined figure that stood in the hole he created, whom he could only assume was Dante.

Battle instinct took over forcing the ringing to subside and the blurred vision to became less import, as Dante charge the rapidly recovering Ichigo, who shifted into a defensive stance and stood his ground.

The two collided blades first spinning about each other in a deadly dance of steel. Offense and defense shifted rapidly as the flow of blow waxed and waned. From one end of the floor to the other they tore the whole place to hell and back again, each step Ichigo lost a little more ground, and Dante seemed to move a little faster.

And then an arc of red lightening leapt along the length of Dante's blade. To Ichigo's credit he never backed down, holding his ground even as the now glowing red blade smashed into his sword with all the force of a wrecking ball. Ichigo flew backwards to the air, Dante fast on his tail, crashing through the rusty double doors that lead to the stair well, and plowing into the far wall.

He landed on his feet, determination pushing the stars in his eyes away as he leapt to meet Dante who responded in kind. Dante plowed into Ichigo, sending the two of them spiraling into the air ultimately slamming into the same far wall Ichigo just pried himself off of. Ichigo wasted no time however, pushing back off the wall with just as much force slamming Dante through a whole section of decayed stairs and into another wall.

And so they ascending the stairs in this fashion, smashing each other in walls the whole way, exchanging swords blows even as the stair well collapsed around them, until eventually the pair exploded out of the top of the building. The resulting dust cloud spat the two out like poison, Dante came to a rolling stop half way across the roof, while Ichigo skid, rolled, and slid all the way to the far edge before stopping.

Dante got up first dusting himself off and giving himself a look over, being particularly delighted to find his jacket was still in one piece. He cast a glance at the destruction the two had wrought in their fight, a wry somewhat proud smile coming to his fast as he turned back to Ichigo, who was still struggling wearily to his feet as blood flowed freely down the left side of his face.

"Alright kid, I think that's enough of a warm up…lets kick it up a notch," said Dante, as he pulled Ivory out of it's holster and aimed it towards the barely standing Ichigo.

Lightening, the color of blood, ignited along the length of the barrel, as Ichigo stared dumbfounded at the sight before him, even as his mind screamed at him to MOVE!!!

There was a sharp hiss as air was rapidly displaced by a bright lance of red energy shooting forth from the barrel of Ivory. Ichigo barely managed to throw himself clear as the spot he was standing on barely a moment ago was erased in a bright red flash of energy.

He rolled to his feet to find Dante standing before him, sword already in mid swing. His sword was only just able to block the strike, but the force still sent him stumbling backwards. But Dante was not about to let up.

He attacked Ichigo relentlessly, as the orange haired youth struggled desperately to deflect each and every blow the inevitable happened…

He missed one…

Crimson liquid shot into the night sky as a freshly opened wound appeared almost magically on his right shoulder. He had an instant to acknowledge this before he was forced to deflect another blow, aimed at his neck. The two jumped apart, eyeing each other as they took stock of their situation, Ichigo with the wide frantic eyes of a cornered wounded animal, and Dante with the cool calm eyes of a practiced hunter

'His reactions will be cut in half now,' thought Dante as he slowly circled his opponent, 'this fight is almost over…that is…if Ichigo doesn't have some kind of 'release form' in storage as I had suspected, but judging by the look of desperation in his eyes that seems less likely now.'

'Shit,' thought Ichigo, as his mind raced a mile a minute, although most of the thoughts were centered on profanities, 'Shit shit shit shit shit…I'm loosing blood fast, I can barely keep up with him, and he's barely broken a sweat…I need to go big and fast…'

He was still think as he and Dante continued to circle about each other, Ichigo suddenly had an idea…an idea he probably would have thought about twice if he wasn't so delirious from multiple concussions and blood loss. He took another step, this one calculated, as Dante mirrored the move keeping the two of them squared off against each other. Another step…and now Dante's back was to the edge of the roof…now Ichigo would make his move…

"You can take a beating…," Ichigo said between gritted blood stained teeth

And then he charged him, ignoring the sword strikes even as they opened up another wound on his upper left thigh, rushed inside his guard, and threw himself into Dante, sending them both spilling over the side of the building into the open air.

Ichigo smiled as he finished his quip all the while still locked with Dante, "WELL LETS SEE IF YOU CAN TAKE A 20 STORY DROP ASS HOLE."

Dante responded with a fist across his face, which Ichigo countered with a foot to his gut. Sword came to bear there after, meeting in parting, even as the part feel ever faster to the ground below, tumbling end over end as they struggled, until eventually they slammed into the ground. Dust and debris scattering from the impact cater…and yes I do mean cater…

The dust settled to revel Dante crouching over Ichigo, his knee planted firmly in Ichigo's stomach driving the wind, among other things, out of him. Slowly Dante rose looking down at Ichigo cough and gagged as he spat up globs of blood onto the pavement, barely conscious at this point.

Dante snorted and shook his head in disappointment, as he returned his sword to his sheath and turned his back on the defeated boy, slowly strolling away.

"Well that was a let down…I am so sick of people who can't walk the walk…and now I'm all worked up…," gripped Dante as he continued walking away from where he left Ichigo half buried in cement barely awake, "Ah well…I suppose that's one down…maybe I should go hit up the guy's partner now…see what kinda chops she's got.."

Dante managed to take three more steps after that…

"HOLD IT!!!"

Suddenly the air pressure around Dante shifted, growing denser and very nearly boiling over with power. He didn't have to turn around to know that Ichigo had found his second wind, but he turned around anyway.

Glowing blue power encircled Ichigo's form, lightening up his eyes and spiraling outwards from him.

"WE'RE NOT DONE HERE!!!" spoke Ichigo, he voice amplified by the power cascading from him now.

"Well now," said Dante, as his hand feel back to grip the handle of his sword, "I don't suppose we are, this party's getting crazy…"

Red energy exploded out from Dante as he rushed forth, sword drawn, "LETS ROCK!!!"

* * *

It was quiet back at the Kurosaki house, without the loud obnoxious father prancing about thinking of new and exciting ways to torment his children. Right now however, the 'adult' was noticeably absent as well as the two younger siblings of the Kurosaki, all three out for what Isshin liked to call 'special daddy daughter alone time' which the children referred to as 'the night that dares not speak its own name.'

It was because of this, that Rukia deemed it acceptable to spend the evening studying the social interactions of humans, which really meant she was going to sit her butt down in front of the TV and watch Chappy the rabbit until the rest of the family got home. Of course she couldn't really bring herself to give Chappy the full attention it deserved, so instead she sat alone in the living room thinking about things…

Mostly she was thinking about how she was going to confront the mod soul upstairs currently attempting to impersonate Ichigo.

Now Kon was a decent enough actor she could give him that, and when properly motivated he could pull off a pretty good simulation of Ichigo. Unfortunately for the little guy the only people that could pick up on the subtle differences between him and Ichigo all lived in this house…

So after a few moments more of deliberation Rukia marched upstairs determined to get to the bottom of this whole mess.

She opened the door to Ichigo's room, not bothering to knock seeing as he wasn't 'actually' in there anyway. Inside sat Kon, in Ichigo's body sitting at Ichigo's desk, looking very confusedly at Ichigo's homework.

"Nee…I mean Rukia what are you…I mean….Rukia, what the hell, knock first," said Kon as he rapidly went from surprised, to confused, to pissed off as he struggled to get into character.

"Relax Kon, I'm fully aware that its you in there…" spoke Rukia as she folded her arms and glared at Kon, who quickly rose to Ichigo's full height.

"I…," he said before he realized he didn't have a contingency plan for this…

"I have NO idea what your talking about," he said as he took folded his arms and suddenly found a spot on the wall to his right very interesting.

"Save, where's Ichigo at and why did he leave you here to distract me," Rukia continued, eying Kon dangerously now, a layer of threat in her voice as she leaned in to further twist her eye daggers further under Kon's skin.

Kon resisted for all of five minutes before abruptly caving in, as expected, collapsing under onto the ground in tears under the withering glance of the Kuchiki glare, as was his nature.

He explained the situation as best he could…which really wasn't that good, given that Ichigo had wisely not told him anything he didn't need to know, in case something like this happened. This however was less fortunate for Kon, as an irate Rukia was not about to take a 'I don't know' for an answer…

That's when Rukia stuck him back inside the lion doll and ducked taped him to the business end of a plunger…can you guess where she intended to put him?

"I SWARE I DON'T KNOW…PLEASE NEE-SAN HAVE MERCY…HAVE…MERCY!!!" screamed Kon as he was slowly lowered into the one toilet in the house Yuzu neglected to clean because frankly it frightened her.

Fortune at last favored Kon, as a sudden spike in spiritual pressure saved him from a fate worse than death.

"Ichigo…," Rukia breathed, as she tossed aside the plunger and running out of the house as fast as her gigia's legs could take her, "YOU STUPID STUPID IDIOT!!!"

Rukia dead sprinted for 3 blocks straight before she was forced to stop cursing Ichigo for a fool, and 2 more blocks after that before she was forced to jog the rest of the way.

Thought's and feelings raced through her as she ran to where her replacement was fighting for his life against a threat neither of them fully understood, but the most predominate among them was…

'Don't die…please don't die….you idiot…you stupid idiot DON'T YOU DARE DIE!!!'

* * *

Elsewhere in the city, a lone man stood on the balcony of his penthouse sweet admiring the beauty of the storm clashing with the lights of the city. He smiled as his different colored eyes took in the sight's, looking beyond what human eye's could see, appreciating the flowing nature of spirit ribbons as the wafted gently in the equally invisible breeze.

In all the white ribbons he marked out three with distinction. While all the other's were white these ribbons bared color…one a faded red, almost pink now, but still worthy of note…the other a bright angry red full of fire and brimstone…but the last was something different altogether, and the man appreciated this one the most, it was almost solid black all the way through…save for a single solid line of pure white running down the middle.

A knowing smile came to the man's lips as he waved the ribbons away, turning back to head back into his study for the night.

"Soon," he said as a sudden flash of lightening reveled a hideous mark writhing and moving as if it were underneath his skin seeking a way out, "Soon…"

Vision's of an impossibly tall tower, built by the damned, filled his mind as he closed the door to the balcony leaving the storm to fester and grow.

* * *

**A/N: **And so ends another exciting chapter my readers, I really enjoyed this one, and I'm excited about the fact that I actually managed to write it spread out over the day, as opposed to all at once during a cramming session a few hours pass the middle of the night.

A few announcements before I wrap things up here, first off **Drane10 **has still neglected to lay claim to his prize(see chapter 6 author's note), therefore I'm putting it up for grabs.

If you would like to lay claim to the prize then send me an OC via the new messaging system I will review it to the best of my ability and get back to you in kind. Unless of course Drane was suddenly to appear between now and the posting of the next chapter (which may be coming sooner then usually due to the fact that I forgot to post one last month).

Also something I wont to run by you guys first, I'm thinking of writing another story related to this one. Its a prequel of sorts, chronicling the start of the demon war, Sparda's rise to legendry status, and the plight of the shinigami in the face of Armageddon.

It's gonna be super epic, and probably incredibly difficult to write given the fact that I already have enough problems finding the will to write this story let alone two. But I'm willing to hear you guys out on this do I…

A) Write both stories, possibly doubling the production time of both projects?

OR

B) Work on this story soley, and save the side projects until later?

Choices…

Well there you go kids, have fun, and get the car back by 12:30 or your all grounded and don't forget to READ AND **REVIEW!!!**

Cheers.

Also, as an after thought, I declare a **REVIEWING WAR!!! **with the other DMC/Beach fics, because I was here first and they're just copying me _...and now I leave you to your squabling...


	8. Chapter 7: Merry Fking Xmas

**A/N: **Ah here we are again right on schedule, let's see.

Middle of the Night – Check

Belated Update – Also Check

Cramming Session – Third Check

Spelling/Grammar of previous chapter unchanged – Final Check

Yep, we're definitely ready to get this thing going again. Few things that need to be brought to attention, Drane10 did in fact claim his prize, no less than 5 seconds after I posted the previous chapter no less. That being said I'm still willing to take into account any OCs I've received thus far, or any OCs you guys might be holding out on me.

That being said I think it bares mentioning that I will probably taking some mild to moderate changes to any and possibly all of the characters I receive in order for them to be fully incorporated into said story. If you have a problem with this I'd suggest you either send me a letter letting me know, or just don't send your OC to me in the first place. Keep in mind this is a privilege, my way of saying thanks for sticking with me despite the comparatively long ass update times with regards to my story as opposed to other stories I could mention.

That aside for the moment I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who take the time of day to type up your thoughts on my little tale I'm spinning here, I salute you…

* * *

Review Response time…yikes there's a lot of you this time around…better break out my responding gloves.

**Drane10:** Once again you out did yourself on the outright review length. As for your questions in this order; Yes. My excuse was he was looking for those three ribbons specifically, for what intent I leave to your imagination, although keep in mind I never specified which son of Sparda the white and black ribbon belonged to. I don't know. And as for Arkham's 'scar' I got the impression that the mark itself was the physical manifestation of 'Jester' when he's in his human form Arkham killed his wife to bind himself to in an attempt to gain more power. Also I apologize for never actually straightening out the whole issue of your prize.

**The Keeper of Truth: **Good Question, although I'm fairly certain it's rhetorical I'll go ahead and elaborate for the sake of other people wondering "Why are these two fighting, again?"

Now those of you who read Chapter 2's opening **A/N, **and if you haven't I suggest you do because it can be quite enlightening, you know my theory regarding Fan Crossovers. Now because I was adamantly against any form of cliché in my attempt to bring these worlds together I sat down and did the 'character math' if you will, to figure out just how Dante and Ichigo would interact with each other. Now everyone who calls themselves a fan of Bleach know that Ichigo is a loud mouth perpetually hotheaded teenager with, seemingly, all the wit of a wet dish rag. Dante on the other hand is a cool collected individual who also happens to be a smart ass. So what happens when you mix something really hot with something really cold…?

That's right you get _steam_, and following that logic I came to the only conclusion I could. They're fighting because that's what they would do…even if Dante wasn't sending out subconscious demon signals, eventually he would piss Ichigo off to the point where he would throw a punch…expect Dante would dodge that punch and keep on talking and Ichigo would keep throwing punches and before you know it they're trying to beat each to death.

It's also kind've a mistaken identity thing, see they both think the other is the monster and there are the hero out to save the world, when in fact they're both just idiots with more testosterone, and demon testosterone in Dante's case, then they know what to do with.

And also **Keeper**, don't let me tell a story for you, if you have an idea for a story, don't throw it away because someone thought of one similar to yours. Instead, embrace it make it your own, and kick some literary ass. I look forward to reading it.

**Kyugen: **This is Pre DMC 3 if you must know, in fact Dante is at the tender age of 16 in this here fic, and I should have made that clear at some point…ah well I'll just backtrack and write something it in later. Incidentally this would also explain his now complete lack of shame regarding his, shall we say, appreciation for the female form.

**Black Fire Light:**Because I have to write these chapters at some point and 3am just happens to be the most convenient time for me.

Ok I think that just about covers it, thanks to all of you who reviewed the last chapter(expect for that one guy who flamed me…you know who you are *angry face*), and enjoy reviewing this one.

* * *

_**Bleach**_

_**The Devils Cry**_

_**Chapter 7: The 12 Bloody Days of Christmas**_

_**A.K.A**_

_**The Only Xmas Present you can except from Me**_

* * *

"LET'S ROCK."

Ichigo couldn't argue with that, he was too pissed off to argue, at Dante, at this night, but mostly at himself, and what he had almost let happen because he was too weak. Just thinking about it made him want to…

Ichigo roared in rage, and threw himself at Dante. He didn't want to think anymore, he didn't want to lose, he didn't even want to fight.

He just wanted to win.

Blue collided with Red as zanpakutō met Rebellion in an explosion of light and color. The ground gave way before the concessive force, sending hairline cracks racing down the street and along the walls of the buildings. At the center they stood, an immovable object and an unstoppable force, pushing against each other so intensely that their blades burned red.

For Dante it was…new…usually when demons played their trump card, their forms changed to accent their new power, but Ichigo looked exactly the same, expect more focused and a lot more pissed. And for that matter demons typically had at least some skill wielding their power, Ichigo used it like…well like a big blunt mountain that he just tried to smother things with.

Unfortunately for Dante, a blunt mountain was still a mountain, and he was burning himself out just trying to hold the bastard back. A single twitch, a slight shift in his footing, and it would all come tumbling down.

Power swirled around the interlocked pair, as they locked eyes across their swords. In Ichigo's eyes Dante saw his defeat, his very first defeat…no…not his first. In Dante's eyes Ichigo saw an enemy, an obstacle in the way of protecting those precious to him, something to be overcome, and something that WOULD be overcome. He almost missed it when a fire lit itself in Dante's eyes, and began to grow.

"_Alright,_"said a voice that sounded like Dante if Dante had gurgled nails for a week, "_You want a measuring contest, LET'S SEE WHOSE GOT A BIGGER PAIR_!"

And then Dante roared, a monstrous thing made even more so by the sharpen fangs that had grown where teeth had once been. Narrowing his eyes, now black as well as red, he braced himself firmly in the ground gathered all his strength, and pushed...

Thunder cracked where there was no lightening, the storm having spent itself in the course of the fight, as Ichigo broke before Dante, his body hurtling down the street, blood and blade following closely in his wake. It took a building to stop him, even then the wall caved in a little where he landed, his oversized sword embedded itself in the ground to his right. It took a moment for him to stop looking for the bus that must have hit him, even then he still couldn't remember how he came to be slumped up against the wall of some no name street in a pool of his own blood.

He blinked once…twice…then closed his eyes, and lay very still, thinking was too hard right now, he would figure out where that chunk of his chest had gone later…maybe after a nap…yeah that's it…a quick little nap.

* * *

Across town, but getting closer, Rukia stopped to catch her breath an irritating third time. She hated this…everything about the situation was wrong. Ichigo shouldn't have been the one to fight Dante, and he most certainly shouldn't have run off to do so alone, leaving her behind like some helpless child.

And now here she was bent over trying desperately to catch her breath…HER BREATH FOR GOD'S SAKE…she hadn't needed to breathe for nearly a century, but now she couldn't go more then a few seconds without needing to take ANOTHER breath. Not for the first time she wondered how the hell people put up with being alive in the first place, it was just so damn tedious. Mostly she tried desperately not to think about what she was racing towards…certain death…a deadly unknown enemy…a corpse…

She bit back the last one swallowing with another mouthful of sweet bothersome air. A moment later she was off again running as fast as her legs could carry her, focusing on the sound of her racing heart and counting the beats.

'…twenty-six…twenty-seven…twenty-eight…twenty-..," she stopped, in all sense the word. Stopped moving, stopped counting, stopped thinking. The spiritual pressure was gone…well not all of it was gone, but at least half of it was…and she had little doubt as to which half.

"Ichigo…," she breathed.

* * *

The dust settled around Dante, as he took his first staggered foot forward. His teeth were straight and even once again, and his eyes were once again a light shade of steel blue.

It was always such a head rush to come down from…that…and it stung his eyes like hell to push it that far. He spit a glob of blood out as his gums healed from where the fangs had come out and gone back in. He stumbled a bit in his steep, but his footing grew surer and surer the closer he got the black clad form slumped over in the distance.

He kept ivory in his off hand, not taking his chances just yet, although Ichigo didn't look like he was getting up soon, if at all, judging by the size of the gash in his chest. It was about then that it hit him, something that he had missed in the course of the fight, but was dawning on him in a bone shattering realization.

The blood, it was red, and liquid, which isn't surprising in and of itself but…

When demon blood hits the air, it usually crystallizes in seconds, and when sufficient quantities are spilled it usually forms a orb like shape with phosphorous properties. Now the amount of orbs can vary depending on the strength of the demon, but Dante had never seen that bleed as much as Ichigo had without leaving behind a single orb.

He had to be sure though…so he reached his free hand down, and dipped a finger into the crimson pool gathered at his feet.

'_Yep, this kids human alright_, _great_' thought Dante, as he spat the taste of copper out of his mouth, and tried to keep his composure, '_that's just...'_

"F**K," he shouted thrusting his hands to the heavens in his rage, pacing back in forth in front of Ichigo like a madman, "STUPID F**KIN KIDS, WHAT THE F**K IS THIS CRAP, GOD DAMN IT…" It went on like that for several minutes with Dante stringing three, four, and five letter words together like an overpaid unimaginative rap star with legitimate issues.

Needless to say, Dante was pissed. Why?

Well for one thing, there were few things in this world he hated being the punch line of anyone's joke, and this was clearly an example of someone upstairs f**king with the controls. For another, he hated ANYTHING that made him use so much of his power. And the crown jewel of the whole thing was he had probably just beaten a kid to death because he was too damn stupid, and someone was going to have to explain to Ichigo's family why he wasn't coming home anymore…

"Ok calm down Dante," spoke the silver haired man as he pulled something from an interior pocket lining his coat, "Easy fix, just a small one should do it…he'll be up and about in no time, and we can sort this whole thing out."

Content with his plan of action Dante turned back to Ichigo's body, a small glowing green stone gripped tightly in one hand.

"Alright Ichigo, I don't think you can hear me in there, but I'll feel better knowing that I at least tried to warn you," he said, as he kneeled down next to the unconscious shinigami and held the stone above the gash running across his chest, "You see this here Green Orb should heal you up good as new. Problem is these things are made for demons, they originate in Hell itself, mortals aren't even supposed to touch em…so what I'm about to do is, literally, going to hurt like Hell."

He didn't bother to ask if Ichigo was ready, as he wasn't likely to get an answer anytime soon. So he unceremoniously rammed the Orb straight into the wound. Ichigo snapped awake the instant the Orb was inside him, his eyes wide and shocked, for a moment he lay there wondering where he was.

Then Dante witnessed Ichigo do something that was, at the time, very unusually…

He opened his mouth…wide…and just froze like that.

It took a minute for Dante to realize that Ichigo was screaming, the pain had stolen his breath away.

They say bone pain is the worst kind of pain imaginable, and in a fashion it is, because as far as flesh and blood goes it was about as deep as one could go. But Ichigo was in a unique position at the moment, for you see in order to fight Dante he had cast aside his flesh, and in doing so gained much power, but at the same time he left himself very…very…exposed.

An Orb, be it green, red, blue, or yellow, is a frozen shard of Hell, demons need them to exist they thrive off it, but when mortals tamper with them all they get is pain…as deep as it can go. Normally humans have natural defense against this, the body, separating things of Hell and Earth from their Soul. Ichigo had no such defense when the orb hit him, and instantly he was opened to a hole to world of pain…soul pain…

Their aren't words to describe what soul pain is like, for as each soul is unique so too is the pain. For Ichigo…it was the physical equivalent of waking up underneath the unnaturally cool body of his mother…as the rain fell and intermixed with his tears.

Had Dante known Ichigo's state he would have never even attempted such a thing, for now the only respite Ichigo would find was looming madness. And for a second there he would have embraced it willing, until the pain etched further into his soul…a place he shared with the lonely master of a sideways world.

'_**Ichigo**_,' he heard a voice call his name, cutting through the pain, and dampening it at the same time, '_**You are not ready for this pain yet Ichigo, so I shall spare you…for now…sleep Ichigo, be at peace**_.'

And Ichigo was, the pain faded, and was forgotten by a grateful psyche, the voice and the memory of it disappearing with it. He slumped against the ground in exhaustion, gasping and panting as he closed his eyes, and soon he slept like he hadn't slept in a long time.

Dante watched all this transpire in the space of a few seconds, unaware of the desperate struggle the blond boy had just endured. Which probably explains why he was caught completely by surprise when the scythes phased through the ground behind him, cut his back to confetti, and sent his bloody body hurtling into an adjacent alleyway.

Two things attract demons like a moth to a flame, power and suffering, and at that moment Dante was sitting in the epicenter of both.

Shakily, Dante rose to his feet, flesh painfully knitting back together even as an unhealthy amount of blood oozed out of rapidly closing wounds. Luckily Rebellion protected his spin from most of the damage, though that knowledge did little for the current pain.

"Well well well," Dante said, spitting out more blood, and rising to his feet, "Impeccable timing as always, here I was all pissed off and worked up with nothing to vent on.

His right hand fell upon Rebellion's hilt as his other replaced ivory at his waist holster.

"Hello," he said, anger apparent in his voice and his now glowing red eyes, "Misplaced," he turned now, squaring off against his opponent, "Aggression."

Before him floated a spectral being, that seemed to consist almost entirely of shadow in the vague fluttering shape of a cloak. Save for two things, a pair of twin scythes seemingly floating at either side of the thing, and what appeared to be the skull of a cow, if a cow could grow horns so reminiscent of the Devil. In the underworld there was a name for such things like these, but Dante could not pronounce that, so he called them Death Scythes.

They were fast, powerful, and if given time they could summon no less than seven scythes from the air. Dante had personally slain three of them over the span of his 15 year long life, and he knew just how deadly they could be.

"Hello number four, there is a knife and a place on my wall with your name on it."

Of course that would never stop him from being a cocky bastard about the whole thing though, God forbid.

"Well not REALLY your name, but you get the idea…"

If the thing cared for Dante's insults or even understood them, it gave no heed. A noise that might have been a roar of challenge issued from within the shadow cloak as the Death Scythe twirled it's twin weapons together, sparking issuing as the broken blood stained blade scraped along each other at eye blurring speeds.

Almost as if they had planned it they moved as one, the Death Scythe, or Four if you will, swooping down to claim the red clad boy's head, as Dante leapt to meet it.

It had been a long bloody day, and it was about to get a whole lot longer and bloodier.

* * *

She was almost there, she could feel it, and all at once she was grateful and terrified at the same time. She had no use for either emotion, so she choose to cast aside both for a third, resolve.

She WAS close, they were probably at the top of the ungodly steep hill that loomed before her, but she hadn't let nearly 5 miles of constant running stop her, and she would be DAMNED if a little thing like the biggest hill she had ever seen slow her down now. She was a Kuchiki damn it, trivial things like air and gravity were supposed to be beneath her!

He was alive, she felt that, and that gave her hope, and hope gave her determination, and a determined Rukia would not be stopped.

She was about halfway up the hill when she felt the…well the best word she could think of to describe it, was a void. Not so much a lack of spiritual pressure as an inversion of it. Like a hollow, that had become so empty on the inside that it had collapsed under itself, and was caught in a perpetual state of collapse.

Had Rukai known a thing about Astronomy she might have realized how very close she came to describing a Black Hole. (**A/N: **Some where an astronomer and a quantum physicist are killing themselves over this I KNOW IT)

But alas that comparison eluded her, as did some half formed memory floating at the back of her mind. True she had never felt spiritual pressure akin to this before, but she still couldn't shake the sense of…familiarity…

But it didn't matter, Ichigo was up that hill, it didn't matter what else was up that, even if it killed her she was going to be there for him. It was just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other…again…and again…and again…

* * *

…and again Dante blocked another blow meant for his neck, ducking below the fallow up blow from the second scythe, as a third appeared and attempted to bisect him from pelvis to sternum. Things were looking bad, Dante hadn't realized how much overpowering Ichigo had taken out of him, on top of that this Death Scythe seemed to be growing steadily MORE powerful as the fight progressed.

The fact that the demon's only weak point was it's head didn't help matters. I mean if Dante smashed that, then what was he gonna mount on his wall? So he was reduced to merely swinging his sword into his cloak so much that the damn thing just dispersed under the pressure.

So far it hadn't worked out so well, but Dante was nothing if not persistent.

He flipped his grip on Rebellion and interposed it between himself and the new rising third blade, even as the other two arched in at his ribs from both sides. Swiftly Dante switched his grip again and thrust upwards at the deflecting all three blades, and leaving an opening a mile wide, an opening that Dante preceded to launch himself straight into, sword first.

Let me clarify, he went INSIDE OF the demon's cloak.

For a moment the young hunter was gone, disappeared inside the shadowy ill defined figure of the Death Scythe, and then barely a second later Rebellion's tip burst through the other side, with Dante following shortly thereafter. He didn't skip a beat with the landing, swirling about with a powerful back stroke, which he followed with as many sword thrust that he could fit into the space of a few seconds, which is a lot more then you might think…

That's when the forth Scythe appeared, intercepting the last thrust and knocking as the blade aside as the other three demon blades came to bear.

Dante grit his teeth together, attached both hands firmly to Rebellions hilt, and meet the demon head on. Swords and Scythes collided in a blur, reminiscent of a cartoon catfight, (**A/N: **A cat fight as in a literal fight with cats in it) at one point Dante could have sworn he grew two extra sets of hands with a Rebellion to go with each.

But as any mathematician will let you know…3 4.

Blood erupted into the air as the Scythe's buried themselves into Dante's flesh, again and again, tearing new holes in his favored red coat, even as the pace of the struggle wore on unabated. Desperate and pissed now, Dante launched an attack of his own tearing into the unresisting black mass of the demon's cloak, sending inky black material to dissipate into the night air.

It came at a cost however, as two more crimson lines tore themselves into his body, lines that patched themselves together at an alarmingly slow speed.

'_Ok, the rules of the game are changing_,' He thought as he quickly reverted back to a defensive stance, '_I can't keep going toe to toe like this I need to go mobile, in a big way before he…'_

His thoughts faded abruptly as a fifth blade appeared, and quickly succeeded where the third blade had failed a few minutes ago, slicing from left hip bone to right shoulder in one smooth stroke.

Dante reeled backwards drunkenly, the internal damage already repairing but the same could not be said of the exterior…

It was time to stop thinking about changing tactics and start CHANGING tactics…

The demon gave him just under five seconds to do it too, which was about 3.57 more then he needed. He felt red lightening arc down his left hand, as he reached into the holster at his waist as the shadow of his opponent fell upon him.

Not a second later he whirled around to face the Death Scythe, right hand gripping Rebellion as firmly as ever, and in the left…

The wooden grip of Dante's very own, custom made, sawed off shot-gun glow red like blood and hellfire.

The demon had a second to stare numbly down the twin barrels before they abruptly exploded into his torso in a hellishly red vortex of raw power. A pain filled screech escaped the demon as more of its inky blackness escaped from its back, even as it's weightless body swooped back down the alleyway the pair was in, to glare at Dante in what must have been rage…and no small amount of confusion…

"Nice huh," said Dante, as he blew away the smoking barrels of the shotgun, "Made it myself, haven't thought of a name for her yet, she could probably shoot a red wood down if I brought enough bullets though…"

"But why am I telling you this," Dante continued as he twirled the gun twice before settling it in its resting place in between Ebony and Ivory on his holster, "You guys never could appreciate the finer points of gunplay…I guess I just like the sound of my own voice…but who wouldn't right?"

His hand returned with Ebony in it, "Alright, time for the showstopper…hold onto your boyfriends girls WE'RE GOING IN!"

And then he was moving, charging down the demon gun blazing in one hand sword swinging in the other. The demon brought his scythe's up, seemingly unsure of how to deal with the bullets flying into it…so it did as its nature prescribed and counter attacked, sending no less than three scythes hurtling at the red charging form.

Playing right into Dante's Hand…

The first Scythe went high, and Dante rolled under it...building momentum…

The second went low, and Dante threw himself over it, losing a bit of his chin stubble in the process…his momentum rising still…

The final Scythe proved to be problematic, rotating at two angles, in such a way as to appear like a giant spinning ball made entirely of blades leaving no where for Dante to go…

Still running at a deep sprint, Dante counted down the picoseconds in his head, nothing less than perfect timing would do…

He inhaled.

'…_3…_'

His right hit the ground hard as his left foot surged forward, the color faded along with everything else in the world as time slowed to a crawl…

'…_2…_'

His left foot hit the ground the instant his right foot left it. The scythe continued baring down on him, it was much closer then he remembered it being, but that didn't disturb him as much as it should. His right foot came up, as the wall to his right faded back into existence.

'…_1…_'

His left leg coiled, building strength, and then launched himself, and all his gathered momentum up and to the right. For an instant in mid air, his path crossed perfectly with that of the scythe, as the bladed head rotated slowly to the left as Dante jumped right. He regarded it as his foot impacted with the wall, shifting his head slightly as the shaft spun sluggish by.

He exhaled…as time caught up with him and the scythe continued on down an empty alley way, and his left foot rose and fell against the red brick of the alley carrying him along it in defiance of gravity…

It occurred to Dante that he probably could have just leapt over that last scythe…but it wouldn't have looked nearly as cool…

His ego was satisfied with that.

Ebony barked and kicked in his hands as he lost momentum and shifted down the wall, angling straight towards the Death Scythe. The demon rose, angry that his ploy had failed so epically, and lashed out with its remaining twin scythes, aiming to take the silver head from Dante's red shoulders.

Dante flipped over the strike, his blade glowing red and sparking with pent up energy. He landed on his feet as the blades of the Death Scythe found themselves stuck in the brick wall.

'_Too easy_,' thought Dante, as he brought Rebellion up for the final stroke, '_Now for the Cu Di T-_.'

His thoughts ended abruptly the second time that night, as the six scythe appeared before him, and promptly planted itself in Dante's chest with enough force to slam his body off the ground and against the left wall of the alley.

The seventh scythe appeared as Rebellion fell from limp fingers, it too stabbed itself into Dante specifically through his right forearm. A second later, Dante's left arm twitched and reached towards the scythe piercing his heart, only to insight a third and final scythe pierced his left arm at the bicep, effectively ending the red clad teen's struggles.

At this point Dante's body had fallen into a minor recuperative coma, to give his healing factor time to deal with the catastrophic damage he had suffered.

Which gave the Death Scythe just enough time to clip that troublesome head from those troublesome shoulders. It was, after all, the only way to be SURE that one such as Dante was REALLY dead.

Of the 7 scythes it currently wielded 4 were prepared for the task, but one would suffice…

It brought the scythe back, with a certain amount of ceremony its limited sentience probably shouldn't have allowed, and then brought it forward to cut cleanly through…

Except its scythe didn't come forward, it moved a couple of inches and then…clanged…

A thought equivalent to 'what the hell' went through the thing equivalent to the Death Scythe's mind as turn around to see what it was that…clanged…

A pair of very angry auburn eyes inside of a suspiciously yellow head, connected to body wrapped in black robes, holding a sword roughly the same size of the body was what it saw. The sword in question was what clanged, as it blocked the return stroke of his scythe.

"Now Dante may be an ass hole, he may be cocky bastard, and he may even be out to feast on the souls of the dead," spoke Ichigo, as pulled the scythe still interlocked with his sword up above his head, "But you…YOUR STILL WORSE!!!"

And with that he roared a battle cry and brought his massive blade down, clean through the scythe and cleaving one of the demon's devil horns clean off before it could even think to respond.

A deep booming noise, filled with pain, issued forth from the cattle skull as the Death scythe was hurt for the second time that evening. It reeled back, pissed all too Hell (**A/N:** Get it…demon… pissed as Hell ah haha…ah you don't know whats funny) and experiencing more resistance from its targets then it was accustomed too.

A black and purple aura enveloped it, as a new scythe summoned forth joining the other three spaced evening in a circle around the Death Scythe. Then they began to spin, as Ichigo watched determination smothering the flickering sense of fear in the pit of his stomach. Faster they spun and faster still until their individual shapes lost all meaning, and the demon surged forward suddenly at Ichigo.

For his part the substitute soul reaper stood his ground in the face of literal, and figurative, death, and in the space of a half second he raised his sword, and brought it down straight into the teeth of wheel o' death. A terrible grinding metal noise filled the air at the collision, and then faded to the sound of metal scraping against metal as four blades struggled with each for dominance…

'_Wait FOUR!?'_ thought Ichigo as his mind desperately counted the number of scythe's scraping along his blade, '_One…Two…Thr-'_

He found the fourth one before he finished counting the third, as it embedded itself in his rib cage, piercing his left lung and poking out his back. The grip on his sword faded to nothing as the other three scythe's untangled themselves from the mass of Ichigo's blade, and joined their brother in making the shinigami's night distinctly less comfortable.

A blade found it's home in the flesh of Ichigo's thigh as another sliced through his right shoulder and the third ungracefully finished the engagement by pushing the now limp blond into the alley wall. The world fell away from Ichigo as the…whatever the hell that thing was stood poised to kill him. He found that he didn't want to die, not here anyways, but he also found that there was very little he could do about that…

And then he heard the voice of what must have been an angle cry out…

"WAY OF DESTRUCTION 4: WHITE LIGHTENING."

He thought that was a funny thing for an angle to say, but he lost the ability to question it when he felt his grip on the world fade away. A second later a distorted wave of energy, with a thin white line barely visible in the center, smashed into the shadow looming over him, sending it sliding back, and breaking another of its scythes.

Rukia was tired…in just about every sense of the word she could think of. And that attack had cost her dearly, she felt like crap, and probably looked even worse, but she was a warrior, and more importantly a Kuchiki, and she would NOT show weakness in the face of the enemy, for that was most assuredly what that thing was…_The Enemy_...

She remembered what a void in spiritual pressure meant now.

"Demon," she said between gritted teeth, narrowing her 'Kuchiki glare' to a withering level upon the Death Scythe. The name alone conjured so many memories, history lesson ingrained into her in the academy. Hundreds of pictures and renderings, thousands of words and paragraphs, even the lecture Yamato himself gave on the anniversary of the war's end, all of that designed specifically to prepare someone like Rukia for this encounter….and yet they might as well as not have even bothered…And as it began descending upon her she couldn't help but crumble a little on the inside, and the tiniest of whimpers escaped her lips.

The being in question was now inconsolably enraged, and its rage fed its strength, its ability to perceive expanded came to it, and with knowledge came yet more fury still.

Twice tonight it had been denied a killing blow, twice tonight it had been hurt by things not even worthy of touching it, and now these mortals were seemingly just CRAWLING out of the wood work ready to rear their ugly head. Oh this…girl…would pay…it…he would make a master piece of suffering out of her. He would-

"Hey…ASS HOLE," spoke up Dante, awake once again, and ready to get this over with already, "Where you going? There're still pieces of my coat left you STUPID SUNNVA BITCH!!!"

He came off the wall in one quick jerk, and ripped the scythes still in him out in a similar motion, breaking them over his knee, as the Death Scythe turned back to face the greater threat, and the first annoyance of an incredibly frustrating night.

Dante stood again, barely noticing the aura of death the demon was now excreting, or the beginnings of what one day might be a spine at the back of its cow skull. He was done playing this game, there would be another number '4' he just wanted to go home, drink some tomato juice, and go to friggen bed.

No more fancy tricks, no more holding back…kill and go home…kill and go home…

He charged, just as the Death Scythe did, five scythes floating behind it to match Dante's Rebellion.

Three seconds passed as they closed…maybe two…and then they passed each other.

And the demon realized four of his scythes where missing their heads. One good one left, he was determined to take at least ONE HEAD back to him with the underworld.

He whirled about…

To find Dante standing with his back to the demon, Ebony held in his left hand and planted firmly in the center of the Death Scythe's Skull. They froze that way for an unspecified amount of time, until Dante, turned to bring one glowing red eye to bear upon the Demon…

"Sweet Dreams."

Ok so maybe ONE more, fancy trick…

He pulled the trigger shortly thereafter, rendering the demon's head as no more than dust, and other such chunks that were slightly too big to be called dust. Its cloak faded away after that, followed by its presence, and pretty soon the only sign that it was ever there was the bloody heap next to Dante that used to be Ichigo Kurosaki.

Dante heaved a mighty sigh at a job well done, as he returned their weapons to their holst-

"HOLD IT!"

Or not, as he brought ebony to bare on Rukia…who responded by raising two fingers at Dante.

Fingers she just shot lightening out of.

Tried as he was Dante was in no mood for any of that crap.

"Woh woh woh, take it easy babe," said Dante as he raised his pistol off the girl and brought his other hand up to show it was empty, "Listen this is all a HUGE misunderstanding…why don't I put up my gun and you…uh…lower your fingrs…"

Rukia glared at Dante, her gaze only breaking at the use of the word 'babe.' Never in her life had Rukia Kuchiki even been called 'babe,' and she really wanted to use that as an excuse to start a fight, but she knew neither she, or Ichigo for that matter, would survive that fight.

As a matter of fact Ichigo might not survive at all. That thought sent a shiver down her spine, and she reluctantly lowered her arm, but never took broke her glare.

'_Well it's a start…_,' thought Dante as he replaced his pistol for what he hoped was the last time that night, "Ok, here's the short version, he's gonna die if we don't get somewhere I can treat his wounds properly, and we need to sort this whole mess out, so why don't we just head over to my place and figure it out from there."

Rukia stood silently glaring at Dante mulling it over, and he was right about Ichigo, she MIGHT be able to stabilize him but that was a much bigger might then anything else. Besides that, Dante hardly seemed the 'lure you into a trap as opposed to open conflict' type. There really wasn't much choice…

"Acceptable," she said evenly, still giving nothing away, and still glaring.

"Alright then," said Dante, as he lent over and unceremoniously hefted Ichigo's bulk onto his shoulder, he noticed Rukia's eyes twitch at that, but said nothing regarding it, "Follow me then."

And so she did…unable to shake the feeling of fate's strings silently tugging her along.

* * *

**A/N: **I feel compelled to write this here as a sort of Public Service announcement…if you meet a man with demon powers, sometimes red eyes a sword and two guns…DON'T, and I can't stress this enough _**DON'T **_follow him home!

That being said, HOLEY FRIGGEN CRAP THAT WAS LONG.

And I know it doesn't seem very long to you guys, but YOU didn't have to TYPE IT…AFTER AN APPENDECTOMY…HIGH AS A KITE ON PAIN KILLERS…IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!!!

Do you see what I have to work with here?

*Sigh*

Well…I'm pretty sure I was supposed to write something else here, but I can't seem to remember what it was…

Ah well, it'll come to me in time, for now though enjoy, what has easily become _'The Longest Friggen thing I have ever Written,' ™_

And as always, READ AND _**REVIEW!!! **_

(Or I'll take YOUR appendix and sew inside of me!)


	9. Chapter 8: Ghosts Followed me Home

**A/N: **You know, it occurs to me that, it's easy to be on schedule when there is no schedule.

And I've never done anything easy in my life, so from now on I'm gonna strive to get at least one chapter out a week…

And when that blows up in my face, I'm gonna get at least on chapter out a month.

And this time, I mean it…really…I do…just you watch…

**Reviewer response time!**

Ok let's see here…where to start…not much to choose from, frankly I'm a little disappointed, but I'm willing to over look that for now…Ah here we go.

**DaveNew – **I am also glad to hear that I am still alive. I was beginning to worry after the third month of endless soul crushing monotony, but you'd be surprised what you could live through.

I appreciate you're appreciation for the intensity of my fight scenes.

In regards to the orb honestly…I don't know either. Really it was one of those spur of the moment decision that may or may not have a larger impact on the story later on, we'll find out together most likely.

And I'm not your Man Pal! And I look forward to your next review…if it's not to presumptuous of me.

**Kyugan – **I have no doubt that I'll meet my future wife (A/N: Ha ha as if) under similar circumstances. Yes Dante assumed Ichigo and Rukia were in fact demons, mostly because he has no idea what the hell a soul reaper is or what it's spiritual pressure felt like, or what spiritual pressure was for that matter…

But I'm getting ahead of myself, Dante's difficulties with the supernatural will be explained in detail in this chapter right here.

Enjoy.

**Heronkai – **Damn it…and here I was all ready to take your appendix for my own use. Yes the Death Scythe was from DMC 1, a mini boss of sorts you could call it, was a big pain in my ass before I got the knack of killing it. The finishing move was inspired by DMC2, I wouldn't exactly call it a direct rip off, but then again if it was then that would be plagiarism, and I'm decidedly adverse to getting sued over a little things like blatant copy right infringement.

And I'll personally injury myself as much as I want thank you very much. Your concern touches a small part of me that would be considered my emotions if I were a women and therefore had any, and I thank you for that if nothing else.

**YJ – **I keep you hanging because I DON'T LIKE YOU!

Everyone can read the next chapter EXPECT YOU!

…so don't you scroll down…I mean it..I'll know if you do too…I'm psychic like that…

At any rate, I am aware of Dante's double pistol usage, I just haven't had the opportunity to exploit that to it's potential just yet. Don't worry though there will be gun play aplenty before all is said and done.

Not that you'll ever get to read those parts my MORTAL ENEMY!

**PyscoticBladeKitty – **I'd advise you to seek medical attention, as that reaction just isn't normal.

Seriously, you could die!

Life threatening matters aside I have to say I like you name, obvious misspelling of Psychotic aside. I suppose it's my deep rooted affinity for cats…no matter how much the little demons plot my destruction…and poop on my bed…

**Vongola Primo – **Yep I was going for something biblical there in the beginning, you know, to set the tone. Surprisingly you were one of the few people to pick up on that. Nice catch.

**P.S.**

It's come to my attention that there is a review reply button next to each review. With this knowledge I've decided that this shall be my future means of replying to you all. Hopefully enticing some more reviews out of you blood sucking leeches. Although I'll probably end up doing that, and the above format, just to spread the hilarity (self proclaimed or otherwise) around. Also because it adds false length to my story…there I said it…

And speaking of Story…

* * *

_**Bleach**_

_**The Devils Cry**_

_**Chapter 8: And then the two Dead People Followed me Home**_

_**Or…**_

_**Story of My Life, as told by a Suicidal Immortal**_

* * *

It definitely wasn't the weirdest walk home Dante had ever endured.

Though it was safe to say it broke the top three, what with the twice eviscerated strawberry blond kid on his shoulder, and his 'lightening shooting from her friggen finger tips' girlfriend(?) glaring pure icy malice at him every step of the way.

And then Ichigo's twin brother(?) met the half way, rambled for about 5 minutes in Rukia's general direction about how difficult it was to pry himself from a plunger(!), before he leapt into Ichigo's body, seemingly merged with him, and left a little blue pill behind that Rukia was quick to pocket…

Not his strangest day ever maybe, but Dante felt if his 'what the f**k' eyebrow arched any higher it would pop off.

Needless to say, many words were going to be had once they got to the relative sanctuary of his flat. Which should have been coming up right…about…

"Ah, here we are, be it ever so humble," exclaimed Dante, as the squat two story building came into view, pressed in on all sides by taller more impressive looking structures.

By comparison Dante's…'house', looked like it should have been condemned a long time ago.

With no small amount of trepidation Rukia followed Dante up his stoop, and too his door, eyes traveling suspiciously all over the exterior of the house, falling inevitably upon the door. The solid steel door, that looked like it could shrug off a tank round. In fact on closer inspection, Dante's hovel was actually quite sturdy looking all round.

A man's home was his castle after all…

"Right, now where did I leave my key," thought Dante aloud, as he rifled through the many pockets in his red jacket, shifting the now much less bloody, but noticeably heavier, comatose body of Ichigo unceremoniously between his two shoulders as he searched.

Rukia's eyes narrowed somewhat as Dante uncaringly swung Ichigo about like a sack of potatoes as he searched for his keys.

"Ah Ha," Dante mutely exclaimed as he pulled the mythical key from one of his interior pockets, aligning it with the lock, and giving it a satisfying twist as the tumblers clicked audibly.

Turning his knob, he stopped for a moment turning to gaze at Rukia.

"Look, fair warning, I wasn't expecting company or anything so the place is a little…messy," said Dante, as he pushed the heavy steel frame of his door open…the sound of cardboard boxes and empty cans being displaced on the floor accenting his point.

At this Rukia could only sigh hopelessly, males, no matter the species it seemed, were such tragically predictable creatures.

In the door Dante swiftly slung his coat, guns, and sword upon his coat rack, the presence of Ichigo on his shoulder only slowing him down slightly as he dropped his dead weight upon his couch. That done, he slumped into the arm chair next to his couch, with no small amount of gratification, took a deep breath, and exhaled reveling in the sanctity of the trash heap that was his living room.

Rukia, for her part, tiptoed around the piles of trash to stand in the relatively clear space in front of the couch.

They stood there for a long time, Dante slumped perfectly relaxed into his chair, Rukia shifting from glaring impassively at him to looking concernedly at Ichigo.

"So," said Dante, breaking the silence abruptly, gradually sitting up, his piercing blue eyes focusing on Rukia with a sternness that surprised the Shinigami, "Whatever you did to him seems to have stabilized him for the moment, I can fix him up good as new in a bit, but first I need you to be absolutely clear with me. Just what the hell are you people…"

For a moment Rukia said nothing, inhaling a deep cleansing breath as she sat on her calves facing Dante with a dead pan almost annoyed expression on her face. Suddenly in her hands appeared two things.

A dry erase marker and a white board…

An exasperatingly long explanation later, complete with gratuitous low quality pictures, and Dante knew everything he ever needed to know about 'what the hell those people are…'

He could actually feel the migraine forming in the back of his head.

"Okay, let me see if I got this, frankly, just plain contrived story straight…" said Dante exasperatedly, massaging his temples vigorously as he spoke, "You're a member of a spiritual task force charged with guiding wayward souls to the next life, while at the same time protecting them from malicious entities called Hollow's…right so far?"

Rukia nodded as Dante continued…

"You were out on patrol one night, when you ran into the guy currently crashing on my couch, Ichigo, a normal human who can see spirits and the like," said Dante motioning to the human lump that was Kurosaki Ichigo, "You followed him home because you sensed a powerful presence, or something, and had a nice little chat along the same lines as the one you're having with me now. Hollow showed up, rolfstomped Ichigo, took a chunk out of you, and pretty much had a jolly good time playing with his food."

Dante looked to Rukia again, who looked a bit confused at his language, but nodded that he was still on the right track.

"So, as essentially a last resort, you stabbed Ichigo with your sword, and transferred your power to him so he could defend himself, but instead of the half you meant to give him, our little carrot top here got the whole package at once and cut himself a hollow clean in half. Which was good news for him, but left you out to dry."

Another look, another nod.

"So you got yourself a gagia-"

"Gigai."

"Whatever-from this, I don't know…'undead paraphernalia salesman' and proceeded to stalk the bejesus out of this blond little SOB. Wacky hijinx ensuing and yada yada yada…"

"Crudely put, but accurate yes."

"Heh…yea, I remember my first crush too."

"What was that!"

"Nothing, nothing," said Dante, a bit of a smile playing about his lips, "I suppose that leaves only one question…

"And that is?"

"Where the heck did that marker and white board come from?"

At this Rukia leveled the same dead pan, annoyed expression at him, if slightly more irritated looking.

"I believe I've answered enough of your Questions Dante," replied Rukia firmly, a cold expression covering her features, "I think it's time you answered a few of mine."

"Shoot," said Dante nonchalantly.

"What are you?" spoke Rukia clearly, echoing his earlier words.

"I," said Dante, before he lasped in a seemingly introspective silence a look of deep thought on his face.

"I," he began again, a smirk spread across his face as he chuckled a bit, "am complicated as Hell." ((**A/N**: aYuck yuck yuck, I am funny…))

Rukia did not look amused.

"That's not good enough."

She didn't sound particularly amused either.

Her 'unamusement' must have been contagious because the smirk fell from Dante's lips at that, a discontent sigh escaping him as he raised his right hand into the air between him and Rukia, fingers spread palm facing him.

He concentrated just a bit…and suddenly red lightening began arcing between his fingers, crimson flames danced about his digits, and a darkness mixed thoroughly with both.

And then suddenly it was gone, a shake of his hand and it was back to normal, the only sign were the lingering tracing of Hellish red in his eyes…

He rose fast at that, not even looking at Rukia as he turned to his desk, opening the top drawer and pulling a Green Orb from it. He pressed it too Ichigo's chest, watched his body tense up, and then go abruptly limp as the magic in the crystal did it's work, a moment before he returned to his seat.

"Ever sense I was a kid I've had these powers," he said solemnly, again surprising Rukia with his mannerisms, "Of course I didn't really consider them powers back then…they were just me. I mean I lived alone out in middle of nowhere with just my mom, and twin brother for company, and he was just like me for the most part."

A smile broke at that as Dante momentarily lost himself to the memories.

"Heh, we were just a pair of normal kids, faster than speeding bullets, more powerful then locomotives, able to leap our two story house in a single bound." He didn't bother to gauge Rukia's reaction, whom the joke was lost on anyways, but instead he moved on, "My mother was probably the only thing that kept us from killing each other half the time, but honestly as strong as we were I don't think it was physically possible for either one of us to actually die."

He sighed again at that, somewhat dejectedly…almost as if he were disappointed. Rukia remained silent and patiently listened to Dante, trusting that he had a point in all this.

"I didn't actually find out what I really was until my 12 birthday, before then I had never thought to ask my mother, and she never told me. Though she was kind enough to give me a few hints, bed time stories about my father, how badass he was, and the like…" Dante paused here for a bit a far off look in his eyes, as his thousand yard stare focused on everything and nothing at once, his mind continuing his story in the dead toneless drone of autopilot, "Course it wasn't until after my mother and brother were killed that I manage to put the pieces fully together."

A deafening silence filled the room as Dante's voice dropped to an almost inaudible whisper, " I can still smell the fires that burned everything I had ever known to ash…hear the screams that gradually just died away…and see the bastards that did it all before they vanished into so much shadow and flame leaving nothing but ash and blood in their wake."

Dante rose unceremoniously at that, walking over to the mini fridge set behind his desk, and rifling through it for a bit, "Sorry…thirsty…" he said, before he pulled a cool can of tomato juice out and took a deep and hearty swig of it…

"Anyways," he said still looking for all the world like he was lost in his own home, and his own thoughts, "It was about three weeks of marathon attempted suicide that it all just sorta clicked."

"I am, the end result of an unholy tryst between a Demon Knight of hell, and a mortal woman…"

He stood at that, stretching his arms out to the ceiling…

"So in short," he yawned out loudly, before he turned to the cloak, noting the 'late even for him' hour, "I'm complicated…"

At that he looked back at Rukia, his focusless eyes at once looking at and through her at the same time.

"And now…I'm going to bed," he said, abruptly turning from the room, pausing just long enough to flip a lever on the side of his chair that folded out a foot rest and leaned the back far enough to resemble a relatively flat surface, "You can sleep here. Don't think he's goin anywhere anytime soon. Got some pillows and stuff in the closet, and tomato juice in the fridge, help yourself."

With that he turned, offering the scantest little wave over his shoulder on his way to the stairs, a gruff little 'night' mumbled out before he trudged up the stairs, and too his room.

Alone for the most part, Rukia slunk over to the vacated chair, and turned to her only company.

"How long have you been awake?"

"…long enough I suppose," said Ichigo after a minute, rolling over to face Rukia somewhat gingerly, a deep lingering ache still all over his body, "What do you think?"

"I think if he wanted us dead at this point we'd be dead," she said simply, laying back into the surprisingly comfortable chair to gaze at the ceiling, the only clean place in this house, "So I guess there's that…what do you think?"

"I think…" said Ichigo, pausing to collect his thoughts, rolling onto his back to join Rukia in gazing at the ceiling, "I think…I have more in common with him than I thought."

"I suppose you do," said Rukia solemnly, leaving it at that.

"So what's our next move?"

"I don't know, for now let's just play it by ear…"

"Fair enough," yawned Ichigo, already half drifting off, "Goodnight Rukia."

"Goodnight Ichigo."

And thus by roughly 5 a.m. the party was over, and everyone said amen, and silently thanked God for creating Saturday.

* * *

**A/N:** So I started writing this about a year ago…fancy that huh?

Though you could probably deduce that by reading the reader reviews, and noticing I hadn't responded to most of the newer ones.

Hey what do you want I got a new chapter down, be happy, in all likely hood I'll probably get to responding to the rest of you on an individual basis soon enough.

At this juncture I'd like to formally apologize to you all for the long long **_EXCEDINGLY_** long wait you all have endured, and note that I would blame NONE of you for dropping my story.

Not that I don't have plenty excuses for my dilly dallying about…

What with the job I lost, the job I got, the Girlfriend I got, the Girlfriend I lost, blah blah blah drama drama drama, enjoy the story** R&R**.

Incidentally if you find my work here funny, have a decent sense of humor, and enjoy a good rant, go read my profile under the section 'things I hate,' there's not much there now admittedly, but more will be added as inspiration strikes me, and by inspiration I mean barely suppressed rage. I found it lulzy if I do say so myself.

Just something to tie you over between long long _**INCREDIBLY**_ long updates.

Night/Morning all.


	10. Chapter 9: How the Devil Makes Friends

**A/N: **Well, here we are again dear readers. Is it sad that I got more reviews during the time I wasn't writing then I got for the time I did write?

I'm gonna say yes, but you can each decide the ultimate answer for yourself, and yes well I do appreciate the Story Favorites and Alerts, I am infinitely more gracious with regards to reviews as it coherently establishes your opinion of my work in a format which is more personally then just an increasing number on my story stats.

Don't suppose I have much else to say at this point, I'd move onto Reviewer response time, but nothing phenomenal there, so ON WITH THE STORY!

* * *

_**Bleach**_

_**The Devils Cry**_

_**Chapter 9: How the Devil Makes Friends**_

* * *

Morning came as it always did for our favorite half demon, in a cold sweat and too damn early. Suffice to say he was not a morning person so much as a morning zombie. Of course biologically speaking the man didn't really have much of a reason FOR sleep, but a combination of apathy, boredom, and an empty wallet didn't really leave him much else to do to pass the time.

Well besides his part time _job_, but he really hadn't had any luck in that department yet…

Groaning slightly he rolled over to smash his alarm clock out of habit, before remembering he 'd already tossed it's crushed carcass against his wall somewhere.

Sitting up on his bed now, yawning and stretching the sleep out of his system, Dante's eyes fell on the stand next to his bed appraisingly…contemplating his morning ritual.

Inevitably he snorted, more than a little disgusted with himself, getting up now determined to face the day with the crutch of the revolver to slow him down. It wasn't the first day he had skipped, in fact it was almost normal now for him to get up in the morning and _not _tempt fate.

Still though…he did need something to get his mind running.

"Coffee," he graveled out to himself, as he rose from his bed and trudged down stairs in his best 'legion of the undead' gait…

Which reminded him of his current guests just long enough to make himself decent, throwing on a pair of pants and a white shirt he had on hand to laze about the house in.

"Morning," he heard someone say as he descended his stairs, a gruffness to it that could only be Ichigo's.

"Wazs'goodbouttit?" grumbled and slurred Dante as he meandered over to the corner of his loft with the line of counter tops and neglected appliances that passed for his kitchen.

"I didn't say it was good, I just said 'morning'," countered Ichigo, his voice firm but strangely hushed, prompting Dante to notice the fairer of his two guests was still asleep…

In response the half demon lazily turned a half lidded glare to reguard the strawberry loafing on his couch…

"Coffee," he said again simply, this time for Ichigo's benefit, as he shuffled through the cuboards, haphazardly throwing the few sparse boxes there in over his shoulder until he discovered the much lauded coffee grounds, pouring them carefully into the coffee pot, the only part of the kitchen that didn't have a noticeable layer of dust on it.

The coffee brewed with agonizing slowness even as the smell of it taunted the groggy demon hunter.

"Mmh, what's that smell?" called a feminine voice from the other side of the room, followed by a meek yawn a gradually dawning of where exactly she was.

"Coffee," was all Dante said, as he poured himself a cup.

"Coffee?" questioned Rukia.

"Coffee…" said Dante again, growing just a bit irritated at having to repeat himself so many times, sitting down in the plush chair behind his desk, "…help yourself," he said charitably as took a savory drink of the cup in his hand.

"Uh…I'm not so sure that's a good-," began Ichigo, before Rukia cut him off by somewhat eagerly pouring a portion of the black heavenly smelling liquid into the surprisingly clean cups on the counter, drinking even as Ichigo finished, "-idea…"

Rukia, to her credit, managed to keep a straight face for a good three minutes after her initial taste…before momentarily blanching, coughing just a bit into her hand, "Well that's quite…strong," said, choking on the last part as she looked at the remaining deceivingly pleasant smelling 'coffee' in her cup with something akin to dread.

"Yes," said Dante with no small amount of satisfaction, as he leaned back into his chair, propping his feet up on his desk as he leisurely drank from his mug, "Yes, it is."

Gluping nervously, and instantly regretting how much she had decided to pour for herself, Rukia made her way over to the couch, tentatively sipping from her mug so as not to seem rude .

She only just set the mug down, when Dante's steel door abruptly slammed open, letting in a great bear of man, holding a pistol as oversized as him. Without pause, hesitation, or consideration the seemingly crazed intruder brought his pistol to bare and wildly fired off round after round after round in virtually every direction.

Ichigo was the first to react, tackling Rukia to the ground, and shielding her with his body as the cascading cracks of gunfire drowned out all the sound around the pair of them.

And then just as quickly as it started, it was over, as the stranger's gun clicked dry the only noise in the deafening silence.

"Hello Ryu," leveled out Dante, whom had moved very little during the whole crazy episode holding the shattered remains of his coffee mug that had been unfortunately destroyed by one of the wayward bullets, "I take it the doorbell is broken again…"

The giant of a man finally seemed to notice that the room he had just unloaded his revolver into was NOT infact vacant, turning to casually regard Dante with a single eye...

"I knocked."

"The door is half a foot of reinforced steel, you could have knocked with a grenade launcher and we wouldn't have heard you…"

"Well I didn't bring my grenade launcher…so I figured it was best to just let myself in and announce myself."

"YOU ANNOUNCE YOURSELF BY SHOOTING THE PLACE UP!" exclaimed Ichigo, rolling off of Rukia, noticeably avoiding eye contact in the meantime, and raising to point an accusing finger at Ryu, "DID IT EVEN OCCUR TO YOU TO SEE IF ANYONE WAS HOME FIRST!"

At that a seemingly solemn look of deep thought crossed Ryu face, as he placed his gun in the holster at his hip, and pulled a cigar from a pouch in his jacket and lit it up, taking a deep contemplative inhale before slowly exhaling out of the corner of his mouth. He paused for a moment more, before removing the cigar, and locking his single eye on Ichigo's.

"Nope…" he said finally, replacing the cigar and smoking it casually as Ichigo abruptly responded in the only manner that seemed appropriate to that, facevaulting straight onto the floor.

"Dante, who is this?" ventured Ryu to Dante, clearly not amused at the teen's presence, "And more importantly, why is he inside the security perimeter?"

"That's Ichigo, and his lady friend-"

"-not his lady friend-" interrupted Rukia abruptly as she rose and dusted herself off from the floor.

"-whatever," interrupted Dante right back, "He's Ichigo, she's Rukia, they're my classmates, I kicked his ass last night-"

"-lucky shot," grumbled Ichigo, as he too rose and dusted himself off.

"-several of them, but it turns out it was all just a mutual misunderstanding so I was letting them sleep it off at my place to show there's no hard feelings."

"Hmm," said Ryu, looking lazily about the trash strewn room, nudging and empty pizza box next to his foot, and disrupting a pile of now moldy tomato juice cans next to that," how charitable of you…"

"So who the heck is this guy Dante?" said Ichigo, more than a little irked at the unnecessary gunfire still ringing in his ears.

"He's my landlord."

"I'm his landlord," answered Ryu exactly the same time as Dante, stopping before saying the implied _'and nothing else.'_

Which _totally_ wasn't suspicious at all…

"Riiight…" said Ichigo, eyebrow cocked only slightly at that.

Ryu for his part had ceased showing any attention at all to the young man, his singular eye focused now solely on Dante now, narrowed slightly, as if he was expecting something.

It took a second for it to click.

"Well, Ichigo," said Dante abruptly, as he swiftly maneuvered to Ichigo's side, warpping and unwanted arm about his drapping, and rather forcefully leading him towards the door, motioning for Rukia to follow, "It's been loads of fun savagely _savagely_ beating your ass, and everything-"

"-lucky shot," angrily insisted Ichigo, forgetting his confusion in his irritation.

"-whatever, the point is…" said Dante, before swiftly opening his door, and ungraciously throwing Ichigo out of it, "Get out of my house."

He was polite enough to allow Rukia to let herself about before slamming the door on both of them.

"A simple 'GO HOME' WOULD HAVE SUFFICED ASSHOLE!" exclaimed Ichigo, swiftly getting up and kicking Dante's door.

"Forget it Ichigo," sighed Rukia, reigning her charge in, "leave him to his business, ours with him is concluded."

It was Ichigo's turn to sigh at that, stepping down from Dante's stoop to join Rukia on the street.

"Yea I guess," he said, a bit dejected as they both turn and started making the walk home…

"What's with that face?" said Rukia, annoyed now at Ichigo's expression.

"What face?" said Ichgio incredulously.

"That annoyingly pathetic face you were making a few minutes ago…"

"Say WHAT!"

"Denial doesn't become you Ichigo," she said simply, turning to regard him as they walked, "Come on, whats up?"

Ichigo couldn't make bring himself to look at her at that, finding something terribly interesting about the sidewalk to his left…

"He could have killed you Rukia," he said finally, still not looking at her, "Hell," he laughed bitterly, "By rights he should have killed me, and there wouldn't have been anything at all I could have done about it…"

A morbid curiosity compelled to find her eyes at that, and discern what he could from them, he had always found Rukia's eyes to be so expressive, like a book of poetry.

Truthfully he didn't know what to expect, but right at the top of the list of 'unexpected' was a very brutal punch to the face, flooring him where he stood.

"AGH DAMNIT, RUKIA WHAT THE HELL?" he shouted up, for once, at her incredulously.

A long suffering sigh escaped Rukia, as she leaned down to Ichigo's height, for once, and very abruptly yelled, "DUMBASS!"

Ichigo could only blink in mute horror at the expression of pure infuriation on Rukia's face…

"Ichigo," she said with surprising calm now that the initial 'dumbass' was out of the way, "Think for a second…how many sword fights have you ever been in?"

"Uum…," began Ichigo dumbly, before abruptly finding his voice, "That would actually be my first."

"That's right, and how many sword fights do you suppose Dante has been in?"

"Uuh…well…probably considerably more than one," offered Ichigo lamely.

"Exactly," she said simply the smolder in her eyes cooling to a look of gentle understanding, "It wasn't because you lack power or determination, it was just a matter of experience, and that will come in time."

She smiled then, that grin of absolute assurance he had only associate with annoyance up until now, "And when it comes, I have faith you'll be able to fight circles around someone like Dante."

And before he knew it, Ichigo…found himself smiling too, a lazy lopsided grin that was decidedly out of practice, but there it was, clear as day for Rukia to see, he hadn't quite stopped scowling, but it was foot in the right direction.

"The moral of the story here is a simple one," she began again, her voice and eyes traitorously calm, "When I say we wait. We WAIT! AM I CLEAR!"

It took a moment for it to register that Rukia wanted an answer, when it did click he did not hesitate.

"Yes, we're clear."

"Good," she said simply, straightening up, and walking off in the direction of home, "Now get yourself up off the ground Ichigo, you look ridiculous."

"Well," grumbled Ichigo to himself, as he stumbled to his feet, and joined Rukia, "At least I'm of average height."

"What was that?"

And thus all was as it should be.

* * *

Meanwhile, Dante heaved a relieved sigh as he slid the unnecessarily large locks of his unnecessarily large door shut, having just thrown the derelicts out on their ass.

"Well now that the kids are gone, what have you got for m-AH" said Dante, before Ryu abruptly walloped him upside the head.

"What were you thinking letting Civilians in here Dante?" said Ryu, expression going from solumenly indifferent to a refined fire in moments, "Do you realize how many firearms I've got stashed in this place?"

"Oh don't be such a women," said Dante dismissively, navigating around his 'landlord' to take his favored seat behind his desk, "I've got all the guns stored away nice and safe like someplace they would have never stumbled upon."

Ryu glared flatly at Dante in cold disbelief, before slightly reaching his hand out to the closet door next to the front. With a simple twist the door opened, and an indiscernible pile of guns of all manner of make and model poured haphazardly from the ajar door to not inconsiderable pile at Ryu's feet.

Dante blinked.

Ryu stared.

"Well…I'm sure they're all unloaded anyway," said Dante, scratching his face sheepishly.

At random Ryu picked a gun from the pile, a machine pistol of some kind, taking it up, and pointing it at the right wall, pulling the trigger to unleash a controlled spray of hot lead drilling yet more holes into the interior wall…

"Lucky guess," said Dante simply, silently glad his place was reinforced to withstand such little things as live gunfire.

"I'm sure," said Ryu, dropping the matter entirely, as he deprived the weapon of its clip, engaging the safety, and replacing it gently on top of the pile.

"Let's get down to business," he said, marching up to Dante's desk and dropping a folder he had been holding in his off right on top of it, "We've got an assignment for you."

"And here I was thinking you were paying me a social visit," said Dante sarcastically as he greedily pulled the file across the desk, "So what do we got, I hope it's big, this dry spell really has been pissing me right the hell off."

Ryu slapped Dante's hands away like a mother scolding an insolent child, not an entirely inaccurate metaphor really, calmly opening the case file before offering a clinical description of the contents there in, pointing to a rather gruesome picture of mutilated body parts strewn about a blood splattered alley.

"The police discovered this scene early this morning, local shopkeeper called it in after investigating the smell, vic count at present is unknown, and for the most part unidentifiable, though going by the markings and piercing decorating the chunks, and the fact that they were loitering inside a friggen alley seems to suggest they were not contributing members of society."

"Tragic, get to the part where this involves something's ass I'm supposed to kick."

"Blood splatter, and arrangement of the pieces," continued Ryu, soldiering on as he was apt to do, " indicate a singular perp standing in a central location cutting them all at the same time, which is too say faster then any of them could realize they were all being cut into pieces."

He took a long drag on his cigar at that to let that crutial piece of information sink in.

"The cuts were perfectly clean straight through the body Dante, the bone did not slow this guy down at all."

"Guy?" ventured Dante, curious now, "Not it?"

He pushed a few of the files around at that, passing a blurry mess of a black and white picture of a distinctly human male.

"Camera's were rolling at both ends of the alley, this is the clearest frame they got of the suspect," he said, chewing on his cigar thoughtfully, "Frankly we're lucky I got an insider on the local police force, otherwise they might have processed this as a normal crime, and we'd have to explain to the lieutenant how Karakura ended up with so many dead cops on our watch."

"Hmm," said Dante barely listening, as he picked the blurry picture to get a closer look. Something seemed indiscernibly familiar about this guy, "And we're sure this is in our jurisdiction?"

"Trust me, I saw the bodies myself, no human did that," said Ryu with a grim finality.

"Right then, what's our first move?"

Ryu took a heavy drag on his cigar at that looking at Dante straight in the face with a perfectly even expression as he slowly exhaled.

"Eh," he said, with a bit of a shrug.

Dante, to his credit, resisted the urge to facevault.

"I'm sorry? I think I have something stupid in my ear."

"Look Dante, we've never dealt with something like this before," said Ryu simply, "Usually these bastards just come straight to you, or loitering in some godforsaken slum until they murder enough derelicts to catch our attention…"

"This," he said , indicating the photos, and the paper work he had brought with him, "This is completely unheard of, there is nothing in the manual that even suggests they're capable of something like this."

He sigh heavily, taking another long drag from his cigar, before stubbing it out on Dante's desk, "So yea, we're gonna wait until they make a more decisive move on this one, mean time I'm gonna get in touch with some experts, and you are gonna go over this shit until your reciting it in your sleep."

"A more decisive move?" snorted Dante in disgust, "For all we know they're next move is gonna be opening a portal to FRIGGEN HELL downtown."

"And for all we know they're not, and until we know otherwise we're gonna do as I say, comprende?"

"Yea yea…don't suppose I really have a choice, not like this guy left his street address at the crime scene."

"Speaking of which, you should probably go check out the crime scene today, get a good look at it with your fancy ass demon eyes of your, might catch something the cops missed."

"Right right, anything else sire?" said Dante, rolling his eyes.

"Yes as matter of fact," said Ryu, turning to leave as he flicked the ashy stub of his cigar into the corner of the loft, "I expect this room to be clean the next time I come back, it's a friggen disgrace."

"Sure, and maybe I'll throw in a free hot oil message and we can sit around talking about our feelings for a few hours."

"Nah, I can do without that."

"Go to Hell Ryu."

"Seen it," he said, slamming the steel door in his wake.

Alone now in the sanctity and solitude of his own home, Dante went to the fridge, finding a single lonely can of tomato juice left. Sighing the long suffering sigh of the hunger and poor, he took his last source of subsistence back to his desk, and poured over the notes and pictures diligently.

Say what you will about Dante, his cleaning habits, or lack thereof, his social graces, or lack thereof, or his humility, etc, but the man took his job seriously and rather enjoyed it too boot.

Once more he felt a certain, connection to this case, as if it were important somehow.

Hours passed swiftly, and his can of juice swifter still, until he resolved he had learned all he could with paper, and needed to see the scene himself. He grabbed his jacket and guns, but neglected his sword. Ryu said they were doing subtly, so 50 cal hand guns would have to suffice for now.

* * *

The late day was warm, but cooling fast as Dante walked about Town, silently reminding himself to ask Ryu for some funds to buy a new bike the next time they spoke.

He was going to be pissed, especially considering how much the first one cost, but it wasn't his fault that giant spider thing smashed it into oblivion.

Though he did have to appreciate the fact that walking certainly gave him time to think, it wasn't something he liked to make a habit of really for personal reasons, yet it was something he always ended up doing.

Probably so it wouldn't be so damn quiet.

He always hated the quiet.

Somehow that lead back to Ichigo and Rukia, an interesting pair if he had ever seen one, and he had seen some pretty interesting pairs, and he had to admit a certain…fascination with them.

All his life, even as a child he had powers, and they had isolated him, say what you will about the 'acceptance of people' but for better or worse he was just not the same as them and he never would be. And once more he knew it too.

He figured that was the way it would always be…

But maybe that was just him imposing that everyone else…maybe it was just a matter of trying.

"Argh…why do these things always have to be so damn complicated," he grumbled to no one in particular.

* * *

Monday came swiftly for Dante, he had visted the crime scene twice in the interim, both times turning up nothing. Not so much a hair rise on the back of his neck.

Just blood stains and a lingering stench of death were the only signs something had died in that alley at all.

Still though at least it had given him time to plan his move today.

The lunch bell rang as the students filed out of the room, Dante moving in their wake, smiling confidently with resolve.

He made it too the roof, spotting Rukia sitting amongst the girls, he had already ruled that option as 'possibly fun but too damning for anything to come of it.'

Instead he turned to Ichigo's group, the boy in question, two others whose names he didn't know, and the unmistakable bulk of 'Chad' as he was called.

Swiftly and assuredly he moved over to them and without so much as an introduction he took an empty spot to Ichigo's left.

"Hi there, I'm your new friend," he said simply, "Deal with it."

There was a moment were no one besides Chad did anything but blink, before all eyes turned to Ichigo…possibly for his approval.

He sat where he was for a moment weathering the incredulous stares of his friends for a moment before turning to regard Dante, and then finally decisively shrugging his indifference.

"Alright then," said Dante, getting the gist of what had just transpired, "So…what's the word on the local babes?"

And thus was a new group dynamic born…

* * *

**A/N: **Wow it is 8:30 a.m., that is a new 'allnighter' record for me folks.

You know, as I've been writing this over the years (Ha), I've noticed that the earlier chapters, as in all the ones before the most updated one, kinda suck.

Which I suppose is a good thing, as it indicates my personal growth as a writer, but I also understand it's a bit off putting for new, and old(really old at the rate I update)readers. That said I'll probably have to fiddle with them some more later, for now though I've got work to go too, le sigh.

As always **read and review**, let me know if I've got all my characterizations down, and for your information, the character of 'Ryu' was in fact the prize of one Drane10, and I sincerely hope I depicted him to Drane's satisfaction.

**S.P.**(As in 'Shamelss Plug)

If your looking for a corner of the web to rp in, and you like my writing/wholly original fantasy worlds, check out my profile and click on the 'homepage' button, for a little internet project myself a few cohorts of mine have been working on.

It's very early, and a little dead right now, but we're looking for new people interested in running open ended campaigns set in this world we've constructed. If your interested, swing on by, register, and drop a 'Hi how are you?' in the 'Discussion & Debate' thread. Look forward to seeing you there, and the first person to guess who I am on the sight, as my screen name is different, gets a prize.

Seeya in another year…unless you wanna just go to the site so you can harass me 24/7 (wink wink nudge nudge)


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